
CHICAGO, 



^ (^o jf^yoR^d. 



3AH /7f/\A/c/jr 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Sliell'-.L-ll.-.- 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




HON. LEWIS CASS. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN 




B-2- 






'^vofxxsclvi %llnstv^Ud. 




1889: 

CHICAGO, NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO. 

BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 



COPYRIGHT 

1889. 

BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 



I 



DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, 

Printeus and Binders, 

Chicago. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. 

I. Early Dis-cov-er-ies of the Northwest, - - . . 

II. The French, the First to Per-ma-nent-ly Settle in the New World, 

III. Hoch-e-la-ga, --.--... 

IV. Sam-u-el Champlain, ...... 

V. Champlain Nearing Mich-i-gan, - - . . . 

VI. Ig-na-tius Lo-yo-la, ...__. 

VII. Jes-u-it Missions, - - - - - 

VIII. Dis-cov-er-ies of Mich-i-gan, - - - - _ 

IX. Marquette's Mission of Mack-i-naw, - - - - . 

X. Dis-cov-er-y of Detroit, ...... 

XI. How the People of New France Lived, - - - 

XII. French and English War in A-mer-i-ca, - - - _ 

XIII. Pon-ti-ac's Con-spir-a-cy, --_.__ 

XIV. Mas-sa-cre at Fort Mack-i-naw, - - - - - 
XV. Pon-ti-ac's Attack on Detroit, . - - . . 

XVI. Mich-i-gan Under British Rule, ----- 

XVII. Mich-i-gan in the Rev-o-lu-tion-a-ry War, - - - - 

XVIII. Mich-i-gan in the War of i8i 2, - - - . . 

XIX. Mich-i-gan a State, .---... 

XX. Mich-i-gan in the Civil War, - . - . _ 

XXI. Prom-i-nent Men and Women of Mich-i-gan, . _ . 

XXII. Men of Mich-i-gan who have Won Na-tion-al Rep-u-ta-tions, - 

XXIII. About the Pro-duc-tions,Min-er-alWealth,Schools, etc., of Mich-i-gfar 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

Hon. Lewis Cass, - • • - Frontispiece. 

A Farmer's Hut in Winter, ... 89 

An In-di-an A-tone-ment, • • - - 64 

An In-di-an Fishing En-camp-ment, - - 15 

Capture of a White Settler's Wife, - - - 138 
Cath-a-rine Re-veal-ing the Con-spir-a-cy of 

Pon-ti-ac, 115 

Champlain's Ar-que-buse, - - - - 47 

Co-lum-bus, ...... 8 

Coureur des Bois, ------ 93 

Death of Rasles, 65 

De Monts, ------- 34 

Detroit in 1838, 150 

Don a-con-a and Cartier, - - - - 18 

Early Churches, ...... 149 

Early Settlers in Mich-i-gan, - . - - 135 

Early Settlers Going to Mill, . - - 153 

E. O. Haven, D.D., LL.D., - - - - 193 

Explor-ing Party, 152 

Francis I., ----- • - 12 

French Traders Buying Pelts. - - - 86 

Fort Pont-char-train (Detroit), . - - 84 

George Wash-ing-ton, _ . . . g8 

Hon. Stephen T. Mason, _ . . . 155 

Hon. Zach-a-ri-ah Chandler, - - • 173 

Hon. George Van Ness Lathrop, ... 174 

Hon. O. D. Conger, 175 

Hunter at Night, ...--- 91 

In-di-an Canoe, 19 

In-di an Carved Pipe, 28 

In di-an Fishing Hook, .... 25 

In-di-an Mode of Bur-i-al, - - - - 68 

In-di-an Mortar to Pound Corn In, - - 24 

In-di-an Pipes, 71 

In-di-ans Dancing on Shore, - - - 21 

Is-a-bel-la, --10 



PACE. 

Jacques Cartier, ..... 13 

James M. Stanley, 188 

John Jacob Astor, .... 128 

Joseph Campeau, - 168 

Judge Bunce, ...... 170 

Lalemant Tied to the Stake, - - - - 61 

Lewis Cass, ... . . 166 

Mack-i-naw Scen-er-y, ----- 75 

Map of Can-a da and Mich-i-gan, - - 23 
Marquette and Jol-iet Descending the Mis- 
sis-sip-pi River, 77 

Mon-tre-al in 1760. From an old print, - 99 
Mon-u-ment to Rasles, . - . - 66 

Old Campeau House, 124 

did Fort Mack-i-naw, .... 76 
Old Pear Tree in Detroit, Planted by French 

Settlers, . . - . - . - 95 
Pictures on the Rocks, .... 78 

Pon-ti-ac, .....-- loi 

Port Royal, 35 

Soldiers' and Sailors' Mon-u-ment, - - 163 
Sports of Early Settlers, - - - - 158 
Stage Coach of the Old Days, - - - 154 
Tad-u sac Three Hundred and Fifty Years 

after Champlain's Visit, - - - 40 

The Battle-Scarred Oak of Tip-pe-ca-noe, - 143 

The Call to Battle, 45 

The Fireplace of our Grand-fathers, - - 178 

The Old Red Mill, 120 

The Scalp Dance, 42 

The Trapper, 129 

The way the Tip-pe-ca-noe Battle Ground 

Looks To day, . . - - . 140 

Thomas A. Ed-i-son at His Labors, - - 181 

Wampum, 69 

Wild Turkies, - - - - i* - I? 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY DIS-COV-ER-IES OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

If my young friend will take a glance at the map 
of Mich-i-gan, he will see that on three sides of this 
State there are large bodies of water — water broad 
and deep enough to sail the largest ships in. 

Now, the ports of A-mer-i-ca that could be 
reached by ships were the ports first settled, and 
thus it was, that the spot upon which Detroit now 
stands, although a thousand miles from the sea, was 
vis-it-ed by the French as early as 1610; but three 
years after John Smith sailed up the James River, in 
Vir-gin-i-a, and laid out Jamestown, ten years before 
the '' May-flow-er" touched the frozen coast of Mass- 
a-chu-setts, and not much more than a hundred years 
after Co-lum-bus sailed from Spain westward in search 
of a short way to In-di-a. I suppose you know that 
before Co-lum-bus set out on his unheard of voyage, 
in 1492, no ship had ever sailed much more than a 
thousand miles on any sea or ocean, without being 



8 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 




CO-LUM-BUS. 



able to enter some port, if the captain so wished. 
When Co-lum-bus said, therefore, that the earth 
was a sphere, and meas-ur-ed only eight thousand 

miles around its largest part — the 
e-qua-tor — and by sailing west 
about two thousand miles, he 
would be able to reach In-di-a, 
he could not make the people 
believe it, and much less the 
sailors of Spain. 

But when a very learned man 
living in Florence, It-a-ly, named 
Tos-ca-nel-li, wrote a letter to 
a Por-tu-gal merchant, saying — 
'*Yes, the world was a sphere, and Asia could be 
reached by sailing westward;" then all the men who 
owned ships began to think about it. At that time, 
Spain, It-a-ly, Ger-man-y, England and France, 
were all new countries as com-par-ed with In-di-a 
and China, and there were a great many things 
made and grown in those countries that the people 
of the new countries wanted to buy. 

The kings, queens, and high dames of Europe, 
having grown rich through many wars and much 
plunder, de-sir-ed more pearls, diamonds, silks and 
shawls; the merchants, the spices, fruits and bril- 
liant dyes of the East, and the trades-work-ers those 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 9 

beau-ti-ful and hard woods, the fine i-vo-ry and steel 
of Asia. They could only get these by sailing over 
the Med-i-ter-ra-ne-an Sea, crossing the Isthmus of 
Suez on the backs of camels, and taking ships again 
at the head of the Red Sea, sail down and out into 
the In-di-an Ocean. This was a long, long journey, 
and took many months for their ships to go and 
come. So, when the merchants and nav-i-ga-tors 
heard of this shorter way, some wished to try it. 

Co-lum-bus was the first to make the venture. 
The sailors, at that time, thought the ocean to the 
west and south of Af-ri-ca a boiling whirlpool, full of 
all sorts of slimy monsters, sea-fiends, headless men, 
and hip-po-gryphs (half horse and half griffin), who 
were ever upon the watch for some straying vessel to 
wreck, in order that a fine meal could be made of the 
captain and his crew. 

You may, therefore, im-ag-ine what trouble Co- 
lum-bus would have had to man his three little ships, 
had not the good Queen Is-a-bel-la come to his aid, 
and said, *T will help you." In those days, when a 
king or queen wanted sailors, they took them whether 
they wanted to go, or not. In this way Co-lum-bus 
se-cur-ed his ninety fright-en-ed sailors for his voy- 
age. He qui-et-ed their fears before starting from 
Palos, by telling them, when they had sailed about 
two thousand miles, they would come to one of the 



10 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 




many islands near the coast of Asia, called the Ante 
Ilos, or Foward Islands. 

But, after sailing two thousand miles, and still 
no land in sight, was it a wonder that these seaman 

became terror stricken, and threat- 
en-ed to throw Co-lum-bus o-ver- 
board, unless he should turn back 
while there was enough in the ships 
to keep them from starving, until 
some Spanish port could be made. 
But poor, patient Co-lum-bus had 
not worked and waited eis^hteen 
years for the op-por-tu-ni-ty to carry 
out his great design, often without 
clothes enough to cover his back, 
or a piece of bread for himself and little boy to eat, 
to be turned back by the threats and fears of a few 
ig-no-rant sailors. 

He kept on, gazing upon that far-off line between 
the heavens and the sea, praying and hoping until 
at last he saw it ; and when his fleet touched the soil 
of that blooming isle, which he called San Sal-va-dor 
(Holy Savior), we must believe Co-lum-bus was a 
happy man, and that he did, indeed, fall down and 
kiss the earth, and bedew it with his tears. 

He did not know, how-ev-er, how very near he 
had come to a great and new con-ti-nent, but thought 



IS-A-BEL-LA. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ii 

the little island he had landed on, one of those he 
had ex-pect-ed to find on the coast of Asia. If he 
had only known what we now know, what a happy 
man he would have been. 

But he never knew it. When he re-turn-ed to 
Spain, the Queen hon-or-ed him with a tri-umph-al 
pro-cess-ion, in which marched the red men he had 
cap-tur-ed and car-ri-ed back with him, their wrists 
and ankles bound with golden bands, and car-ry-ing 
in their hands the bright feathers of trop-ic-al birds 
found on the island. 

Co-lum-bus called these people In-di-ans. He 
should have called them Co-lum-bi-ans, as the New 
World ought to have been called Co-lum-bi-a, after 
its dis-cov-er-er. Do you not think so? 



CHAPTER H. 

THE FRENCH, THE FIRST TO PER-MA-NENT-LY SETTLE IN 

THE NEW WORLD. 

There was great dis-con-tent in France during 
the reign of Francis I., from 1524 to 1547, on ac- 
count of the spread of Luther's new re-li-gion, as it 
was called. The people quar-rel-led, and as a result 



12 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



f 



^'i:^ 



a good many suf-fer-ed death for beliefs sake on both 
sides. This made the people afraid of each other, 
and wish to move to other countries. Both sides 
were de-ter-min-ed to have their side the side the 

King should up- 
hold. Ac-cord- 
ing-ly, when the 
knowledge of the 
con-ti-nent Co- 
lum-bus had dis- 
cov-er-ed beran 
to be cir-cu-lat-ed 
among the com- 
mon people, they 
thought there 
might be found a 
way for them to 
escape their pres- 
ent troubles, and 
make new homes 
for themselves in 
this New World. 
You must al- 
ways bear in mind, though, that for two hundred 
and fifty years after Co-lum-bus' first voyage across 
the At-lan-tic, nav-i-ga-tors were sailing from Eu- 
rope, hoping yet to find this same short rout-e to 




^ly- 






FRANCIS I. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



^3 



In-di-a, which he had hoped to find. The EngHsh 
sent John Cabot in search of it in 1500, but he did 
not find it Then, the French, thirty-four years after, 
sent out the famous nav-i-ga-tor, Cartier, with a 

com-mis-sion from 
Francis I., to look 
ev-er-y-where for 
this much de-sir-ed 
passage. He sail- 
ed around New 
Foundland, saw 
the fishing vessels 
on the banks, 
which for some 
years had been 
coming from Brit- 
tain-y to fish, and 
seeing great inlets 
of water all along 
the coast of Maine, 
he thought, per- 
haps, some of these might be the very thing he was 
looking for. 

The cold weather of the fall season, how-ev-er, 
coming on, Cartier did not think it safe to stay so 
far north any longer, and cap-tur-ing an In-di-an boy, 
turned the prow of his ship toward France. 




JACQUES CARTIER. 



14 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Re-turn-ing to St. Malo in the fall, he told glow- 
ing stories of his dis-cov-er-ies, and greatly ex-cit-ed 
his coun-try-men and the King in favor of aiding him 
in an-oth-er ex-pe-di-tion. 

The next spring, although the country was ad- 
mitted to belong to Spain, Cartier was re-com-mis- 
sioned, and set out with three ships — the Great 
Her-mi-nia, the Little Her-mi-nia, and the Her-mer- 
ill-on. All the people of St. Malo — a port on the 
west coast of France — as-sem-bled on the 15th of 
May, 1535, to bid the bold captain and his crew 
good-bye. The priests blessed them, and their wives 
and friends kissed them many, many times; some 
thought, doubtless, for the last time. 

Out of the harbor, with flying banners and loud 
huzzas, sailed the three ven-ture-some ships. When 
out upon the bil-low-y ocean they cast one fond look 
to the land they loved, unfurled their sails, and steered 
westward toward A-mer-i-ca. The largest ship was 
only about the size of a small sloop, and the smallest 
but forty tons burden. Think of such a ship on the 
wild At-lan-tic! No wonder the little tubs rolled, 
and pitched, and tumbled, upon the white tem-pest- 
u-ous waves, and that the sailors saw many a sor- 
row-ful day in that two-months' voyage ; but at last 
the great Gulf was found, and the river leading into 
it dis-cov-er-ed. Cartier called it, ''The Gulf and 




AN IN-DI-AN FISHING EN-CAMP-MENT. 



15 



i6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

River of St. Lawrence," because he en-ter-ed the 
first on St. Lawrence's day. 

Still sailing down the great river, in a short time 
he reached a narrow part of the stream, and upon 
the lower shore, one morning, saw an In-di-an village. 

As his vessels sailed up the narrows the In-di- 
ans caught sight of the ships. They had never seen 
a sailing ship, and called these coming toward them, 



"wmo^ed canoes. 



After gazing at these airy things with feelings of 
wonder and awe, their Chief, Don-a-con-a, sprang 
into a birch canoe, and, fol-low-ed by a fleet of twelve 
others con-tain-ing twenty braves armed with spears, 
he paddled toward the ships. Ten of the canoes 
re-main-ed a short distance behind, while the Chief 
ad-vanc-ed and asked to know the purpose of Car- 
tier's visit. 

By the aid of the In-di-an boy stolen on the first 
visit, the Chief was made to see that the French had 
come only on a mission of peace. This was all the 
Chief wished to hear, and Cartier moored his ships 
to the mouth of the St. Charles River for safe 
harbor. 

The of-fi-cers and crew soon landed, for we can 
well believe, after this long and la-bo-ri-ous voyage 
they were glad to tread again the solid earth. When 
they had looked about a little, ad-mir-ed the native 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



^7 



forests, caught some fish, and killed some wild birds 
with their ar-que-bus-es — for they must have been 
very tired of the salted fare of the ships — the Chief, 
Don-a-con-a, paid them another visit; this time he 
was ac-com-pa-ni-ed 
by five hundred war- 
ri-ors. 

The cause of this 
second warlike visit 
was soon un-der- 
stood. Cartier had 
heard of a larger In- 
di-an village only a 
few days' sail up the 
grand river, and 
Don-a-con-a know- 
ing of his in-tend-ed 
visit to this village, 
and wishing to keep the pale-faces with his tribe — 
having, perhaps, then, some idea of trade in his 
mind — was de-ter-min-ed to prevent it. He, no 
doubt, thought how many beaver, wol-ver-ine, grey 
fox and bear-skins, he could exchange with Cartier 
and his men for some of the fine clothes they had on. 
Stad-a-con-a was the name of his town, and Stad- 
a-con-a was a thriving place in its chief's o-pin-ion. 
If, in truth, any gain was to be had from the visit, 




WILD TURKIES. 



i8 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



of these ''winged ships," he wished his people to 
have it. Finding that his army did not impress Car- 




DON-A-CON-A AND CARTIER. 



tier with its mil-i-ta-ry im-port-ance, the Chief re-sort- 
ed to an-oth-er plan. Three In-di-answere dressed in 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



^9 



black-and-white dog-skins, with horns as long as a 
man's arm at-tach-ed to their heads, their faces black- 
en-ed, and being put in a canoe were sent drifting 
toward Cartier's ships. They were to rep-re-sent the 
most ter-ri-ble of all the In-di-an evil spirits. Shriek- 
ing and moaning they floated on until near the ship. 







IN-DIAN CA-NOE. 



Now they flung their hairy arms in the air and made 
all sorts of hid-e-ous noises. Finding Cartier's sail- 
ors were not fright-en-ed to death, as they had ex- 
pect-ed they would be, they paddled back to their 
watching chief. When near the shore, the foolish 
red-skins fell flat upon their faces in the canoe, and 
were taken up as stiff as heavy sticks, and car-ri-ed 
away to the woods. The French could now hear 
them la-ment-ing, shouting and clam-or-ing over some 



20 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

mournful event which seemed to have hap-pen-ed 
them. Some time after, one of the tribe again start- 
ed for Cartier's ships, to warn him of the danger of 
at-tempt-ing to go any further up the river. ''One 
of theirgods," hesaid, **had just vis-it-ed Don-a-con-a,, 
and told him all sorts of troubles would come upon 
the pale faces if their chief per-sist-ed in con-tin-u-ing 
his journey. Is not the same practice in fashion 
now-a-days between the people of rival towns? 

Well, Cartier only laughed at their childish play, 
and or-der-ed his in-ter-pret-er to tell them that ''their 
god was an id-i-ot; that he could do no harm to those 
who be-liev-ed in Jesus Christ." 

Without more ado, Cartier set sail with his flag- 
ship, on his in-tend-ed tour of dis-cov-er-y, leaving 
the two others behind. Before re-en-ter-ing the St. 
Lawrence River, to show the In-di-ans what mighty 
people the French were, he or-der-ed sev-er-al shots 
be fired from the ships cannon. This was enough 
to frighten them to death. These forest children 
thought the earth had indeed cracked open. The 
sound was louder than any thunder they had ever 
heard before. They now fully re-al-iz-ed that their 
Chief, Don-a-con-a, and all his tribe, could be sent 
to their far-away hunting grounds with only a few 
blows from that frightful im-ple-ment of war. A 
show of power often makes seeming friends, and so 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



21 



it was with Don-a-con-a. He and his tribe made 
no further ob-jec-tion to Cartier's journey, but bid 
him adieu with many bows and grunts and grave 

looks. 

This pleased the French nav-i-ga-tor, because 
in leaving the two smallest ships still at anchor in 




IN-DI-ANS DANCING ON SHORE. 



the Charles River, he knew they would be safe. In 
the cool Sep-tem-ber weather Cartier sailed up the 
beau-ti-ful St. Lawrence River. Day after day he 
floated onward, dis-turb-ing with the prow of his litde 
ship the flock of water fowl sporting upon its bosom, 
now and then stopping to gather the ripe clusters of 
grapes swinging in the bright sunshine on its banks. 



22 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

or, at nightfall, lis-ten-ing to the sad notes of the 
whip-poor-will, and the many com-plain-ing insects 
seeking some quiet nook m which to sleep away the 
dark-en-ed hours of night. 

When near the small lake in the river, now called 
St. Peter, about half way from what is now Mon- 
tre-al, Cartier was o-blig-ed — owing to the shal-low- 
ness of the water — to leave his flag-ship and take to 
his row-boats. 

Reaching a large island in the river he was met 
by hundreds of In-di-ans, who had heard of his com- 
ing, no doubt, through their swift runners. They 
were shouting and dancing with all their might, to 
show their pleasure at Cartier's visit ; they hur-ri-ed 
out in their canoes, and threw fish and corn mto his 
boat. When night came on great fires were lighted 
along the shore, by which the ship's crew could see 
the sav-a-ges dancing. They heard them singing 
and hal-loo-ing through the whole night long. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOCH-E-LA-GA. 



The next morning early, dressed in the fashion 
of Francis First's time, with glis-ten-ing helmet and 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



23 



cuirass, burn-ish-ed swords and car-ry-ing queer look- 
ing guns in their hands, Cartier and his of-fi-cers 
landed, in-tend-ing to visit the village they had seen 
while passing up the river. They were met by an 
In-di-an Chief, with a number of his tribe, who 
greeted them with marks of profound respect, wished 




MLWAVKtZ 
CHlCfiCO 



to know why they had come to see him, etc. Guid- 
ing the nav-i-ga-tor and his much-be-span-gled men 
to an open space outside the village — a sort of par- 
ley-ing place — the Chief, as is done now-a-days, 
made a long speech to his vis-it-ors. The speech 
was full of wel-com-ing ex-press-ions, and in return 
for these Cartier gave them some knives, hatchets, 
and held out a cross for them to kiss. This the 
Chief did without hes-i-ta-tion. 

Ev-er-y-thing being as it should be, there was no 
op-po-si-tion to Cartier's further progress, and the 



24 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



march to the village was begun. He saw fields of 
ripe corn and pumpkins. Corn was the most handy 
grain the In-di-ans could have grown, had they known 
any other. They could bury it on leaving for their 
long winter hunts or scalping ex-pe-di-tions, and it 
would be just as good on their return as they had 
left it. I don't know what the In-di-ans would have 

done without their corn. 



Upon nearing the vil- 
lage Cartier saw it was 
sur-round-ed by upright 
logs placed close to-geth- 
er, which the French call- 
ed pal-i-sades. It was 
made of high trees, half 
burnt off, and then hewn 
down with their stone 
axes. These logs were dragged to the place where 
the pal-i-sades were to be built. Holes were dug 
deep in the ground, and these logs set in three rows 
all around the village. Those on the outside and 
inside in-clin-ed toward their tops, and were fas- 
ten-ed to the upright middle ones by strong braces. 
Platforms were laid upon these braces upon which 
were laid great piles of round stones, to be used as 
missiles when at-tack-ed by other tribes. When we 
think what poor tools these sav-a-ges had to ^ work 




IN-DI-AN MORTAR TO POUND CORN IN. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



25 



with, we must suppose it took them a long, long 
time to complete such a for-ti-fi-ca-tion. 

Through a narrow o-pen-ing in the pal-i-sades 
Cartier and his men en-ter-ed the village. The 
houses within were about fifty in number, shaped like 
an ^"gg, and built of bent poles cov-er-ed with the 
bark of trees. 
Some of these 
houseswere i 50 
feet long and i 5 
feet wide, many 
fam-i-lies living 
in one house. 
Fires were 
found ev-er-y 
few feet apart, 
where the dif-fer-ent fam-i-lies warmed themselves, 
and cooked their fish and game. There was no 
quar-rel-ling about places, food or clothing, we must 
believe, in such a house, and that all worked and 
lived to help each other. Their home-life was very 
peace-a-ble. The houses were built around an open 
space, or as we should call it, a little park or com- 
mon. Cartier and his men were here met by all the 
In-di-ans, squaws and children within the in-clo-sure. 
They shouted and jumped about in the wildest way. 
Some of the women came up shyly and touched the 




IN-DI-AN FISH-HOOK. 



26 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

of-fi-ccrs' mustaches and beards, and laughed a little. 
They were beside themselves with cu-ri-os-i-ty. H ad 
these dazzhng creatures dropped from the sun? 
How they ad-mir-ed them! 

When as-sur-ed, from careful ex-am-in-a-tion, that 
they were, indeed, made of flesh and blood as they 
were, and could talk and eat and drink as they did, 
mats were brought by the squaws and the pale-faces 
were told to seat themselves. Four In-di-ans soon 
ap-pear-ed bearing their aged Chief upon a deer-skin, 
and placed him upon the ground at Cartier's feet. 
Taking from his head a chaplet of por-cu-pine quills 
bound with red, the old Chief handed it to the 
French of-fi-cer as a token of his tribe's friend-li-ness. 
Cartier ac-cept-ed the gift with many thanks. 

In a few minutes all the lame, blind, sick and 
infirm In-di-ans in the village, were brought to Car- 
tier to be touched, or to be given med-i-cine to cure 
them. Of course, he could not have cured them 
all had he had the med-i-cine chest of the ship with 
him, but he thought, no doubt, the next best thing to 
do was to read a chapter in the Bible, and this he 
did — they seeming to listen — after which he showed 
them all how to make the sign of the cross. This 
cer-e-mo-ny they did not then un-der-stand, but in 
after years they were all taught its sym-bol-ic mean- 
ing by the mis-sion-a-ry priests. < 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ^7 

When about to leave Hoch-e-la-ga — the name of 
their village — the French war trum-pet-er blew a 
loud blast upon his bugle, which caused the In-di-ans 
the greatest a-maze-ment. The French were pressed 
to remain with their tribe, gifts of corn, beans and ^ 
fish being of-fer-ed them in a-bun-dance. In leavmg 
the village, through the same narrow o-pen-ing. Car- 
tier and his men were fol-low-ed by a throng of wo- 
men and children. He gave them presents, and then 
set about ex-plor-ing the island upon which Hoch-e- 
la-ga stood. As-cend-ing the high mountain just 
back of the village, Cartier was pleased with the view, 
and named the site MonURoyal, now called Mon- 

trp-al 

When Cartier re-turn-ed to Stad-a-con-a he found 
a fort had been e-rect-ed at the mouth of the St. 
Charles, by his men left behind. 

Winter soon o-ver-took the voy-a-gers, and such 
a winter as they had never dreamed of; for how 
could the dwellers of ''Sunny France" im-ag-ine men 
would wish to oc-cu-py a country where they would 
be com-pell-ed to wear the heav-i-est blankets seven 
months in the year; where their ships were cov-er-ed 
with ice and could not move from their moonngs; 
where the snow was waist deep ; no game to be found 
near enough to kill ; no fish to be caught, and noth- 
ino- but salt meat to eat! As the lonely hours of 



2S 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



the winter passed slowly away, many of the crew 
grew sick with that ter-ri-ble disease called scurvy. 
A great many died. 

One day Cartier was walking along the river 
when he met an In-di-an whom he knew had been 
sick with the same disease, but had now, it ap-pear- 
ed, re-cov-er-ed. He m-quir-ed what had cured him, 
and found the rem-e-dy to be the branches of the 

spruce tree, 
made into a 
strong tea. 
The French 
soon had gal- 
lons of this tea 
boiling, and 
began to drink 
it that very day by the quart. They were all 
helped, and when spring had thawed out Cartier's 
three ships, he began to think about re-turn-ing to 
France. But what should he say? He could not 
say he had found the route to In-di-a, nor that the 
earth he had seen was full of gold, or that diamonds 
lay shining along the shores of its streams. This 
was what the King and the people who would come 
to welcome him would expect to hear. 

The next best thincf he could do would be to 
grat-i-fy their cu-ri-os-i-ty by showing them a li\^e 




IN-Dl-AN CARVED PIPE. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 2^ 

chief with a troop of his braves. Ac-cord-ing-ly, 
Don-a-con-a and ten of his tribe were lured into the 
fort, when they were seized by the French soldiers, 
taken to the ships, and car-ri-ed off to Europe. 

Five years after, in 1541, an-oth-er man, a no- 
ble-man named de la Rogue, but called Sieur de 
Ro-ber-val, after his estate, gained per-mis-sion of the 
King to spend his own money in fitting out an-oth-er 
ex-pe-di-tion to New France, as they called the coun- 
try Cartier had vis-it-ed. He was given the title of 
Lord of Hoch-e-la-ga, Can-a-da, Sag-u-en-ay, New 
Foundland, Lab-ra-dor, and many other places, by 
the King, although there was not a white man to 
rule over in his whole domain. He had five ships, 
and as the sailors who had been with Cartier told 
such ter-ri-ble stories about that cold, icy country, 
Ro-ber-val was com-pell-ed to visit the prisons of 
France to find men willing to man his ships and help 
make up his col-o-ny. The brave Cartier was again 
chosen to command the ex-pe-di-tion. He waited a 
whole year for the ships to be put in order, and at 
the end of this time, finding some of the cannon had 
not been put aboard, sailed with only a part of the 
fleet, leaving Ro-ber-val to follow when he was 
ready. 

When Cartier again reached Stad-a-con-a — now 
called Quebec — and was o-blig-ed to tell the In-di-ans 



so HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

he had not brought back their Chief, Don-a-con-a, 
and his war-ri-ors, the In-di-ans had a great mind 
not to let Cartier land, and told him as much; so he 
thought it best to sail up the river some distance, 
when he stopped at a point of land he called Cape 
Rouge. He built a fort here and named the place 
Charlesbourg. Then he went up to Hoch-e-la-ga, 
and there spent the winter, and then an-oth-er win- 
ter, always looking for Ro-ber-val and his ships to 
come with clothing and pro-vis-ions for his fam-ish- 
ing men. But they did not come, and Cartier, dis- 
cour-aged and angry, set sail for France. When 
putting into the harbor, now known as St. John's, he 
met his old friend and patron, Ro-ber-val, but would 
not return with him to Stad-a-con-a. He was so 
angry that he slipped off in the night and sailed for 
France. It would take too long and require too 
many pages to tell you of the other ad-ven-tur-ers, as 
they called these men in those days — though they 
did not mean what we now mean by the word — 
who sailed from France to the north of North 
A-mer-i-ca, 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



31 



CHAPTER IV. 



SAM-U-EL CHAMPLAIN. 

From the time of Cartier's dis-cov-er-ies, how- 
ev-er, down to about 1600, very few ex-pe-di-tions 
were sent out from Europe to A-mer-i-ca, because 
the Spanish claimed the 
whole country. The Pope 
of Rome sanc-tion-ing this 
claim, the Cath-o-lic kings 
of England and France 
re-frain-ed from in-ter-fer- 
ing with this right. 

But the few years be- 
fore 1600, are known in 
his-to-ry as the years of 
great com-mer-cial ac-tiv- 
i-ty. Great com-pa-nies 
were formed for trade, and 
the purchase and set-tle- 
ment of distant lands. 

The four Kings who helped these com-pa-nies, were 
those of England, France, Holland and Spain. 

The Spaniards spent some years in the New 
World hunting for gold and precious stones; the 
Hol-land-ers came to trade with the natives; the 




SAM-U-EL CHAMPLAIN. 



j2 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Por-tu-guese to capture the In-di-ans for slaves; the 
EngUsh to supply themselves with to-bac-co, and 
the French to catch fish, and find cheaper furs for 
their ar-ti-sans. The Spaniards kept to the south of 
the country, the English and Hol-land-ers to the 
middle, while the French con-fin-ed themselves to 
the north and northwest. The mind of all Europe 
was fixed upon the New World at this time. 

In the year i 588, there was a great quarrel going 
on in France between Henry III. and Henry of 
Navarre — a Pro-test-ant Prince, and af-ter-ward 
Henry IV., the first King of the House of Bourbon. 
Well, Henry III. was killed, and Henry of Na- 
varre was told by the pow-er-ful nobles in France, if 
he would become a Cath-o-lic he could be made King 
of their country, and he con-sent-ed. At the close 
of the war, a Pilot-Gen-er-al of France was told to 
take back the ships to Spain, which had been sent 
to assist Henry of Navarre in his claims to the 
French throne. This Pilot-Gen-er-al had a nephew 
by the name of Champlain, who knew all about 
man-ag-ing a ship. He was told to take one of these 
ships to Mex-i-co, the Spaniards then being masters 
of the country. 

While upon this voyage the young nav-i-ga-tor 
found out just what he was fit for. He could sail a 
ship, govern men, and write for the in-struc-tipn of 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. jj 

the hungry world about the things he had seen. 
When he re-turn-ed to France from Mex-i-co he had 
all the in-for-ma-tion the people craved, written out 
in a book, with maps and other aids to its clearness. 

In 1603, Henry IV., who had been as-sist-ed in 
one of his battles by a no-ble-man named Aymar de 
Chastes, gave him the sole per-mis-sion to go and 
trade with the In-di-ans of New France. Two ship 
loads of men were eas-i-ly found to go, as it had been 
sixty-eight years since Cartier, on his return, had 
said, ''There was nothing there but ice and sav- 
a-ges." 

Now, as there are always places for men in this 
world who are pre-par-ed to fill them, who do you 
think of all the sea-far-ing men of Western France, 
was chosen to command this im-port-ant ex-pe-di- 
tion? 

Sam-u-el Champlain ! 

He was born at a small town near the great sea- 
port of Rochelle, in 1567. His father was a sea- 
captain ; but his son Sam-u-el had not only served 
his ap-pren-tice-ship on the sea, but he had also been 
in the army of France. 

When Champlain's ships sailed up the St. Law- 
rence in 1603, guided by Cartier s charts, the In-di-an 
villages ofStad-a-con-a(or Quebec), and Hoch-e-la-ga 
(or Mont-Royal), had dis-ap-pear-ed. Not a pal-i- 



34 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 






sade was left standing to show where they had once 
stood. 

A stragghng tribe told him of many tribes of In- 
di-ans to the far west of the great lakes and a great 
river, upon which they made their homes. 

No doubt, Champlain now thought he was in the 
way of finding that long-sought for route to In-di-a; 

but as he had little idea 
of the coldness of the cli- 
mate, his men all suf- 
fer-ed se-vere-ly for the 
want of warm clothing. 

When he re-turn-ed to 
France in the spring, to 
buy the things people 
would need to settle in 
Can-a-da, he found De 
Chastes, his patron, had 
died. Now, he must find 
some one else who had 
money to spend in such 
an en-ter-prise. He soon 
found him. His name 
was De Monts. He was a man of many honors, 
and the King of France gave him all the land north 
of what is now Penn-syl-va-ni-a, for his col-o-ny. He 
called it A-ca-dia. He was to reap the profits of all 




DE MONTS. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



35 



the fur trading in this large stretch of country. No- 
body else was to be al-low-ed to shoot even a mus- 
quash. Of course there were other men who wished 
to trade, and so De Monts thought the eas-i-est way 
out of the dif-fi-cul-ty was to take them into his com- 
pa-ny. 

The two ships were filled with all sorts of people, 
from a baron down to a prison convict. They sailed 
in April, 1604, and as the climate of the St. Law- 
rence was thought too cold for real settlers, the south- 
ern course was taken, and the first land they touched 
was Nova Scotia. Here De Monts found a ship 
load of furs, and as he and his com-pa-ny had the 
only 



right 
to shoot 
and trade 
with the 
In-di-ans, 
he took the 
ship, skins, 
pro-vis-ions 
and all, and 
made the 
traders work 




PORT ROYAL. 



That's the way the grand 
The ships en-ter-ed the Bay 
of Funday, and finding a safe harbor the men landed. 
The landscape was so beau-ti-ful and all seemed so 



for him 
lords did in those days. 



36 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

sunny and in-vit-ing, that one of the gen-tle-men, 
name Pou-trin-court, asked De Monts to grant the 
spot to him. The Gov-ern-or was only too glad to 
do so. Pou-trin-court named the harbor and site, 
Port Royal. Of course, among people of such a 
dif-fer-ence in birth, there was a great dif-fer-ence 
in their ways of life. There were men who had 
never worked and men who had always worked ; 
there were men who knew very much and men 
who knew almost nothing; there were Cath-o-lic 
priests and Hu-gue-nots in this little col-o-ny, and 
there was much quar-rel-ing among them. For ex- 
am-pie: One day in cruising about the Island of 
Nova Scotia, some of the men took a small boat and 
landed at the southern end of the Pe-nin-su-la of 
Nova Scotia. After spending the day strolling 
through the forest, when night came on and they 
were ready to return to the ship, a young priest who 
had ac-com-pa-ni-ed them was no where to be found. 
They im-me-di-ate-ly ac-cus-ed a Hu-gue-not of the 
party of kill-ing him, and, although the poor man 
staunchly de-ni-ed it, all be-liev-ed him the mur-der- 
er, and left for the ship. 

The young priest being tired and thirsty, it 
seemed, had stopped in his rambling to drink at a 
bubbling spring, and laying down his sword — ev-er-y 
man but a la-bor-er wore a sword in those times — 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. jy 

had gone away and for-got-ten it. Re-turn-ing to 
find it, he had lost his way. All night he wan-der-ed 
about in the lonesome woods, shouting in vain to his 
com-pan-ions. Was he, indeed, to be left here to 
die of star-va-tion, or worse yet, to be torn to pieces 
by wild beasts .^ 

Sixteen days had passed when one of the men 
in-form-ed an of-fi-cer of the ship that he had seen 
something that looked just like silver in the rocks on 
the shore, and would like to go back and take a 
second look at them. Per-mis-sion was given. Their 
boat had hardly been fas-ten-ed to a rock on the shore 
when a low, sad sound was heard. Going to the spot 
from whence it came, they found the poor priest just 
alive, his body re-duc-ed to a skel-e-ton. Taking him 
up gently, they car-ri-ed him to the ship, and in a few 
weeks he was walking about again, to the great de- 
light of the Hu-gue-not, who, until the priest's rescue, 
was, in truth, con-sid-er-ed his mur-der-er. 

At last it was de-cid-ed to start the col-o-ny on a 
small island at the mouth of the St. Croix River, the 
present boun-da-ry line between Maine and the Brit- 
ish Do-min-ion. A fort and bat-ter-yfor placing the 
cannon was built, a town laid out, with a square in 
the middle, and a large house e-rect-ed for the Lord 
of the country, Sieur de Monts. Champlain and 
an-oth-er of-fi-cer also built themselves a house. The 



j8 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

soldiers and sailors soon fin-ish-ed a long, barn-like 
building, where they could dance and sing in bad 
weather, and then they went to work on a powder 
mag-a-zine, the com-mand-er keeping them busy 
through the winter to keep them from freezing to 
death, or dying of home-sickness. The town was 
called '' L'Hab-it-a-tion de St. Croix." 

The winter was so severe that the wine and cider 
brought from France, had to be cut with a hatchet. 
The driftinof ice between the island and the main 
land, pre-vent-ed them from getting suf-fi-cient wood, 
and cold and home-sick they began to grow re-al-ly 
sick. Before spring, out of the sev-en-ty-nine men 
taken from France, thirty-five had died; so that the 
little graveyard of the " Hab-it-a-tion de St. Croix" 
held almost as many col-o-nists as their wintry ships. 

De Monts, and all that were left, were heart-i-ly 
sick of the site chosen for the set-tle-ment, and as 
soon as a ship could get out of the bay, himself, 
Champlain, and sev-er-al others, with an In-di-an 
guide, set out in search of an-oth-er spot. They 
cruised along the coast of Maine for two months ; but 
finding no more in-vit-ing place, re-turn-ed to Port 
Royal, Pou-trin-court's harbor, and de-cid-ed to move 
ev-er-y-thing from the '' Hab-it-a-tion de St. Croix" 
to Port Royal. To be in read-i-ness for the next 
winter, ev-er-y-bod-y was set im-me-di-ate-ly at work. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. jg 

This set-tle-ment was the be-gin-ning of the 
A-ca-dia, which fur-nish-ed the poet Long-fel-low 
with the story of E-van-ge-hne. It was planned 
and car-ri-ed out after the great seign-eu-ri-al orders 
of Europe — a lord being given a do-min-ion, of-fi- 
cers, men and workmen, to found a little kingdom in 
the New World, just like his master's over the water. 
Although this set-tle-ment was made upon a royal 
plan, it did not flourish as well as the set-tle-ment 
made by the Pilgrims a few years later, at Plymouth, 
Mass-a-chu-setts. 



CHAPTER V. 

CHAMPLAIN NEARING MICH-I-GAN. 

I suppose you think it about time we were get- 
ting to Mich-i-gan, but you must re-mem-ber, in those 
days, a thousand miles was a greater distance, and 
took more time to travel it than it does now to go 
around the world — twenty-five thousand miles. So 
I must ask you to con-tin-ue to follow the French 
soldier, nav-i-ga-tor, mis-sion-a-ry and statesman, up 
the St. Lawrence River, on his voy-a-ges of dis- 
cov-er-y. 

A-ca-dia had not proven en-tic-ing enough to 



40 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



keep Champlain there. He wished to know more 
about the great northwest ; about that passage to 
In-di-a! To France he had gone for men and ships 
to aid him, for you must know an ex-pe-di-tion of 
dis-cov-er-y costs a great deal of money, and the ex- 
pense is gen-er-al-ly borne by a com-pa-ny. Cham- 
plain seems to have had the courage to ask for what 




tad-u-sac, three hundred and fifty years after 
champlain's visit. 

he needed, and always for-tu-nate in finding num- 
bers of persons who be-liev-ed in his cause, to the 
extent of fur-nish-ing him with all the money he 
wanted. Two ships were fitted out, and the un- 
daunt-ed ex-plor-er set sail from Honfleur, April, 
1608. Over the At-lan-tic he went with all speed, 
steering his ships again for the Gulf of St. LawTcnce. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ^/ 

Passing Tad-u-sac, where a few In-di-ans fished in 
summer, he reached a point of land shaded by large 
walnut trees, and where many wild grape-vines hung 
from the dead branches of maple trees, and he de- 
cid-ed to start his set-tle-ment here. 

The In-di-ans of Cartier's time called it Stad-a- 
con-a; they now called if' Quibo," or Quebec — sup- 
pos-ed to mean, '^narrows in the river." Here he built 
a fort of logs, high up on a cliff, and dug a moat 
inclosing three houses. He laid out a garden, in 
which he planted ev-er-y kind of veg-e-ta-ble then 
eaten in France. He, also, started a small vineyard, 
and set out rose-bushes about his log-house door. 
When not oth-er-wise eri-gag-ed, he was found work- 
ing in his garden. Outside of the moat he com- 
pell-ed the sailors and his men to clear a piece of 
ground, upon which they sowed wheat, rye and 
barley. Thus, you see, that Champlain was a true 
col-o-niz-er, as well as soldier and sailor. He ex- 
per-i-ment-ed with the soil to see what could be best 
grown in that cold climate, while most of the other 
men who had been granted great patents of land, 
only thought of what could be taken out of the coun- 
try to sell in France. They traded with the In-di- 
ans, and only thought of making themselves com- 
fort-a-ble while com-pell-ed to stay in the New World. 
This was the third per-ma-nent set-tle-ment made in 



42 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



the New World — Port Royal in 1604, Jamestown, 
by the English, in 1607. Champlain thought by 
chris-tian-iz-ing the In-di-ans, and making them in- 
dus-tri-ous and kind-hearted, he would have no en-e- 
mies to bar his pro-gress to the far-off lakes of which 




THE SCALP DANCE. 



he had heard, and where he still hoped to find that 
water passage to In-di-a! To further this end, he 
made friends with the In-di-ans, and when two tribes, 
the Hurons and Al-gon-quins, wished him to aid 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ^j 

them in giving battle to the I-ro-quois, their most 
ter-ri-ble en-e-mies, he will-ing-ly con-sent-ed. 

This queer battle I must tell you about, because 
it was the first fought in the country north of Flor-i-da, 
in which some of the con-tend-ing In-di-an tribes 
were helped by white men. 

On the 28th of May, 1609, after wit-ness-ing a 
mag-nif-i-cent war-dance en-gag-ed in by the Hurons 
and Al-gon-quins, Champlain sailed down the St. 
Lawrence in his shallop, with twelve men, all armed 
with ar-que-bus-es, his small boat fol-low-ed by twenty- 
four canoes, con-tain-ing sixty In-di-an war-ri-ors. 
Crossing Lake St. Peter, in the St. Lawrence River, 
they en-ter-ed the Rich-e-lieu River, and sailed along 
its wooded shores, the In-di-ans stopping on the way 
to hunt and fish to supply their daily food. The In- 
di-ans, unlike our modern war-ri-ors, did not en-cum- 
ber themselves with a lux-u-ri-ous com-mis-sa-ry de- 
part-ment. It must have been a funny ex-pe-ri-ence 
for Champlain, who had seen battles fought in 
France, where armies, ac-com-pa-ni-ed by martial 
music, marched in solid masses to attack their en-e- 
mies, to see these naked war-ri-ors darting through 
the woods to spear a deer, or sitting upon the river's 
bank with a bone fish-hook sup-ply-ing themselves 
with a trout breakfast. Thus they passed the month 
of June; but, after en-ter-ing the basm con-tam-ing the 



44 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

nu-mer-ous islands at the head of the lake to which 
Champlain, at this time, gave his name, he grew im- 
pa-tient at these long delays, and sailed on with his 
shallop without his savage army. Hearing the roar- 
ing of water he landed, and passing along the shore 
soon saw the white foam of a dan-ger-ous water-fall. 
He saw he could not pass it with his small ship, and 
re-turn-ing, scolded the In-di-ans roundly, through 
an in-ter-pret-er, for de-ceiv-ing him. But im-ag-ine 
Champlain's pleasure and surprise, when he saw 
twenty-four of these stalwart fellows, each take a 
canoe upon his head, and with a bound, start through 
the forest to find a spot beyond the falls where it 
would be safe to re-im-bark. Fol-low-ing them, with 
his gun, Champlain and his men were at the landing 
some time after the In-di-ans. When they had en- 
ter-ed the lake again they thought it dan-ger-ous to 
row in the daytime; so it was de-cid-ed to sleep days 
and sail nights. Champlain says, they lolled under 
the shady forest trees, smoking, telling funny stories, 
and cooking their fish and game during the day; but 
as soon as the sun had sunk behind the hills, they 
leaped into their canoes and rode down the lake as 
fast as their paddles could fly. One night, after 
passing what is now called Crown Point, they spied 
a large flo-til-la of canoes, which they soon found out 
be-long-ed to the I-ro-quois. As soon as these two 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



45 



In-di-an navies had dis-cov-er-ed each other, they all 
stood up in their canoes, and set up the most hid-e- 
ous war-cries. All night they hal-loo-ed, ban-ter-ed. 




THE CALL TO BATTLE. 



and boasted of their 
a-bil-i-ty to de-mol-ish 
each other, just as ar- 
mies do now-a-days. ^ , 
But the I-ro-quois num- 

ber-ed over two hundred, while Champlain's forces, 
French and In-di-ans to-geth-er, were not over sev- 
en-ty. 



46 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

During the night the I-ro-quois landed a part of 
their men, whom Champlain could see throwing up 
breast-works, behind which to hide themselves when 
the battle should begin. By daylight all the I-ro- 
quois had landed, and lashing their canoes to-geth-er 
with wythes, they were ready for the attack, as soon 
as the sun should rise. Champlain and his of-fi-cers 
now dressed themselves in the long stockings, short 
skirt, steel breast-plate, back-piece, and the plumed 
hats of the French of-fi-cers' uniform of the pe-ri-od. 
From a band crossing the breast was sus-pend-ed 
good-sized am-mu-ni-tion boxes, ''while from their 
sides hung each his trusty sword." 

Loading his ar-que-buse with four balls, Cham- 
plain or-der-ed his French crew to keep hidden in 
the bottom of their canoes until he called upon them 
for action. 

The Hurons and Al-gon-quins, under the com- 
mand of an In-di-an Chief, landed at some distance 
from the breast-works of the I-ro-quois. This was a 
signal for the I-ro-quois to come out and give them 
bat-tie. ''They ad-vanc-ed," says Champlain, "with 
a coolness and stead-i-ness, which ex-cit-ed his ad- 
mi-ra-tion." 

The Hurons and Al-gon-quins now called for 
Champlain in loud cries, at the same time o-pen-ing 
their ranks for him to pass to the front. When the 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



47 



l-ro-quols saw the glis-ten-Ing steel armor, plumed 
casque, sword and ar-que-buse of Champlain and his 
men, they stared at them in mute a-maze-ment; but 
when the com-mand-er raised his gun, and a chief 
fell dead, and at the second shot an-oth-er, and an- 
oth-er, the I-ro-quois, thinking an evil spirit had 




CHAMPLAIN S AR-QUE-BUSE. 



de-scend-ed from the clouds to aid their en-e-mies, 
fired a volley of arrows into their ranks, after which, 
swiftly turning about, they fled in ev-er-y di-rec-tion. 
The Hurons and Al-gon-quins fol-low-ed, killing 
ev-er-y I-ro-quois they could not catch — and an In- 
di-an had rather be killed outright, in those times, 
than be taken, because he then es-cap-ed being tort- 
ur-ed and burnt alive. 



48 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

The vic-to-ry was complete, and Champlain's 
won-cler-ful gun had gained it ! The alhes took the 
canoes, weapons, and ev-er-y-thing be-Iong-ing to the 
I-ro-quois, and after a great cel-e-bra-tion, in which 
a pris-on-er was cru-el-ly burnt ahve — very much 
against Champlain's en-treat-ies — all re-turn-ed to 
their homes, thinking the brave ''white face" the 
greatest and best being that had ever vis-it-ed the 
earth. 

After this vic-to-ry, Champlain per-mit-ted one of 
his men, named Nich-o-las de Viguan, to ac-com- 
pany the Hurons to their homes at the foot of the 
Geor-gi-an Bay. He heard no more of him until 
nearly three years after, when, being in Paris in the 
in-ter-est of his little col-o-ny, he was in-form-ed that 
Monsieur de Viguan had re-turn-ed to France, and 
more than that, had made the most val-u-a-ble dis- 
cov-er-y of all the nav-i-ga-tors sent out of Europe. 
He in-form-ed the court of-fi-cials that ''he was, in- 
deed, the most worthy of all the ex-plor-ers ; " for, 
said he, "I have found the source of the Ot-ta-wa 
River to be a great lake, which, after crossing, I en- 
ter-ed an-oth-er large river flowing north. De-scend- 
Ing this river I came to the sea-shore, where I saw 
the wreck of an English ship rotting at the water s 
edge; the crew having es-cap-ed, doubtless, only to 
be tom-a-hawk-cd by the In-di-ans; and this sea was 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ^g 

only sev-en-teen days, by canoe, from Mon-tre-al." 
This was happy news to Champlain. At last, the 
great water passage to In-di-a had been found! 

Champlain was urged, by the court, to set sail 
im-me-di-ate-ly, as ships and money were at his ser- 
vice. This was just what he had longed to do. 

Re-turn-ing to Quebec, Champlain, with de Vi- 
guan, an In-di-an guide, and three Frenchmen to 
help paddle, em-bark-ed in two small birch canoes 
for this ''North Sea." En-ter-ing the Ot-ta-wa River 
they sailed until the swift rapids of Car-ill-on and 
Long-Sault stopped their course. Now they were 
o-blig-ed to walk along the shore holding their canoes 
by a strong cord. Champlain's arm was almost bro- 
ken in trying to keep the canoe from going off in 
the strong current. 

For days they paddled and paddled, and car-ri-ed 
their canoes over the port-a-ges, Champlain hardly 
stopping to rest, so anxious was he to see this great 
northern ocean, which dis-cov-er-y was to change the 
whole commerce of the world. Fre-quent-ly his men 
planted great crosses of white cedar along the river s 
bank, for Champlain was a very good Cath-o-lic, and 
wished to have all the In-di-ans brought into the true 
Cath-o-lic church. After ex-pe-ri-enc-ing great dan- 
ger they ar-riv-ed at the country of the Al-gon-quins, 
the allies of the Hurons. This spot is about half 



50 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

way from the mouth of the Ot-ta-wa to Lake Nip- 
is-sing. Landing, they were sur-round-ed by the 
In-di-ans, and a solemn feast was given Champlain 
by the wel-com-ing Chief, Tes-sau-at. After smok- 
ing awhile, Champlain asked for guides and four 
canoes to take him to the country of the Nip-is-sings. 
The Chief looked sad, and re-pli-ed : 

*'They will kill you!" 

But Champlain as-sur-ed them he was not afraid ; 
that de Viguan had been there, and did not find this 
tribe '*so cruel !" 

** Nich-o-las," ex-claim-ed the as-ton-ish-ed Chief, 
turning to de Viguan, ''did you say you had been 
to the Nip-is-sings?" 

*'Yes," re-pli-ed Nich-o-las, coolly; ''I have been 
there." 

Here-up-on the In-di-ans cried out all to-geth-er — 

**You are a liar!" 

**You know very well," added the Chief, *'that 
you slept here among my children ev-er-y night, and 
rose again ev-er-y morning;" and then quickly point- 
ing to Champlain, he con-tin-u-ed : '*He ought to 
kill you with tortures worse than those with which 
we kill our en-e-mies." 

The weary and heart-sore Champlain, at this, was 
struck dumb with a-maze-ment. He took de Vi- 
guan aside, and said sor-row-ful-ly : *Tf you have 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 5/ 

de-ceiv-ed me, confess it now, and the past shall be 
for-giv-en you. But, persist, and you shall be hanged 
if what you have said is not the truth." Falling 
upon his knees, the trembling culprit begged for 
mercy. Although Champlain was in a rage, and 
or-der-ed the fal-si-fi-er from his presence, he vis-it-ed 
upon him no further pun-ish-ment. 

Dis-ap-point-ed and thor-ough-ly mor-ti-fied, Cham- 
plain joined a fleet of forty canoes bound for Que-bec 
on a trading ex-pe-di-tion, and reached his small col- 
o-ny about the middle of June, so thin and jaded 
that his Lieu-ten-ant, whom he had put in command 
during his absence, hardly knew him. He was 
almost a-sham-ed to meet the of-fi-cers of the court 
in France again, after his failure to find the road to 
China; but go he must, for his col-o-ny needed many 
things they could not find in the wil-der-ness. 

While Champlain was in France he told the 
people how much the In-di-ans needed in-struc-tion 
in re-li-gion, and how their ad-vance-ment in civ-il-i- 
za-tion would help the fur trade of France. His 
appeal for money to buy the vestments, the candles 
and or-na-ments for the altars which were to be 
e-rect-ed in his far-off chapels, was an-swer-ed on the 
spot by a gen-er-ous sub-scrip-tion of nearly three 
hundred dollars. Champlain, with four priests and 
more col-o-nists, left France in 161 5. When the 



S2 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

In-di-ans of Quc-bec first saw the priests with their 
long cloth skirts, tied around the waist with a strong 
cord, and their bare feet cov-er-ed with wooden san- 
dals, they were greatly sur-pris-ed. 

After se-lect-ing a site for a convent, the priests 
and all the people of Quebec knelt on the bare 
ground, and the first mass ever said in Can-a-da was 
cel-e-bra-ted by Father Dolbeau. After the mass it 
was de-cid-ed to send one of the priests to the Hu- 
rons. Father Le Caron was chosen, and started for 
Mon-tre-al, where many of the tribe then were on 
their yearly trading ex-pe-di-tions. 

They did not wish to take the priest, but fi-nal-ly 
con-sent-ed. He was soon fol-low-ed by Champlain, 
who sailed up the Ot-ta-wa River, crossed the port- 
age to Lake Nip-is-sing, from there to the Geor-gi-an 
Bay, down its west shore until the harbor of Match- 
e-dash was reached. Se-cur-ing his canoe, he soon 
found himself walking through small patches of corn, 
pumpkin vines and sun-flowers, ri-pen-ing in the 
warm autumn sun. The corn was roasted on the 
ear for him as a del-i-ca-cy; the pumpkins baked in 
the hot ashes, and the sun-flower seeds were pressed 
for the oil, which was be-liev-ed by the In-di-ans to 
be good for his hair. This journey, which took 
Champlain nearly two months to make, is now made 
in a day. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 53 

The present site of Col-ling-wood, Can-a-da, is 
sup-pos-ed to be the ground oc-cu-pi-ed by the Hu- 
rons at that time, and the place sup-pos-ed to have 
been vis-it-ed by Champlain. This was as near as 
he came to Mich-i-gan. 

I should take delight in fol-low-ing with you the 
career of this great col-o-niz-er ; to take you with him 
on an-oth-er ex-pe-di-tion against the I-ro-quois, and 
to show you the self-sac-ri-fic-ing life he led in Can-a- 
da for thirty years ; but my space is lim-it-ed, and so 
you must find the rest of the story in Francis Park- 
man's ex-cel-lent works. 



CHAPTER VI. 

IG-NA-TIUS LOY-O-LA. 

The course of the fur-trade took the route of the 
Ot-ta-wa River, so that the waters sep-a-ra-ting Mich- 
i-gan into two parts were first en-ter-ed by the French 
traders on their way westward ; but they were not 
the first settlers. These were priests. 

I will now give you a short his-to-ry of the founder 
of the re-li-gious order to which most of them be- 
long-ed, so that you may see how well they fol-low-ed 
the ex-am-ple of their teacher. There are in the 



54 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



Cath-o-lic church sev-er-al orders or as-so-ci-a-tions of 
un-mar-ri-ed men, formed to do the mis-sion-a-ry, the 
char-it-a-ble, the ed-u-ca-tion-al and hos-pit-al work 
of the church. Some of these orders were es-tab- 
Hsh-ed as far back as 200 A. D. Paul of Thebes 
founded a mon-as-ter-y at the mouth of the Nile in 
Eg3^pt, in the year 340 A. D. 

The best known of these orders are the Ben-e- 
dic-tines^one of their priests coming across the At- 
lantic with Co-lum-bus, on his second voyage — the 
Fran-cis-cans, some of their order ac-com-pa-ny-ing 
Champlain to Can-a-da in 161 5, and later, the Do- 
min-i-cans and Jes-u-its. Of this last order we know 
the most con-cern-ing their work in the north and 
northwest of A-mer-i-ca. Their founder was a Span- 
ish no-ble-man, born in his father's castle, Loy-o-la, 
Spain, in the year 1491, just a year before Co-lum- 
bus sailed for the New World, and ten years after 
Luther was born. 

He was named Ig-na-tius, and when very young 
was made page at the Spanish court of Fer-di-nand, 
the Cath-o-lic. He wore ev-er-y day a splendid suit 
of rich velvet and silk, trimmed with gold, and his 
armor glit-ter-ed like the stars with precious gems. 
When old enough, he en-ter-ed the army of the pow- 
er-ful Em-per-or of Ger-ma-ny and Spain — Charles 
the Fifth. While fiorhtincr the French, at the bat-tie 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 55 

of Pam-pe-lu-na, in 1 521, he was wounded in both 
legs from a cannon shot. The one broken had been 
un-skill-ful-ly set, which the proud young soldier, 
when nearly well, com-mand-ed the surgeon to break 
again and re-set. This done, a bone near the knee 
was found to be too long. He had it sawed off with- 
out a groan. When that had been rem-e-di-ed, the 
leg, alas, was found to be too short to walk on eas-i-ly. 
The brave and handsome young courtier then saw 
that he was hope-less-ly de-form-ed. What a blow 
to his hopes! 

As he lay upon a sick bed for months, tired of 
ev-er-y-thing he had for-mer-ly loved, he began to 
read the lives of the early church fathers. Their un- 
sel-fish de-vo-tion to the cause of the weak, the poor 
and the sick, touched his heart. He could never 
again join his King's army, but he could join the 
army of his God, and this he re-solv-ed to do. 

When able to leave the castle of his father, he 
set out on a short journey to visit his old in-struct-or 
and com-pan-ion in camp — ■ Manrique. While riding 
his horse over the hills and vales to Nav-a-re-ta he 
turned and gave one long, fond, farewell look to the 
home of his youth. From that moment the pale, sad 
knight gave up fam-i-ly, home and friends, and bound 
himself to a life of pov-er-ty, chas-ti-ty, pain, self-de- 
ni-al and reproach. 



^6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Reaching his teacher, he sent his servants back 
to the castle, and soon after started for the mon-as- 
ter-ry of Mont-ser-rat, where he passed the most of 
three days upon his knees, praying and weeping. 

Streno^th-en-ed in his resolve to serve God with 
all his heart and soul, Ig-na-tius left the mon-as-ter-y, 
and meeting a beggar soon after, per-suad-ed him to 
exchange clothes with him. The beggar thought 
the pale courtier was at-tempt-ing a bit of fun with 
him, no doubt, or was in-volv-ed in some un-law-ful 
intrigue. The Knight, how-ev-er, re-tain-ed his 
sword, and seeking a shrine of the Virgin Mary, 
spent the night upon his knees, before it. When he 
arose to his feet in the morning he hung his sword 
upon the altar, and began his day by begging his 
bread from door to door, and to preach against the 
teachings of the her-e-tics of the time, as they were 
called. In 1523, he had written a won-der-ful book 
called ''Spir-it-u-al Ex-er-cis-es," for which he re- 
ceiv-ed the Pope's blessing, 

Ig-na-tius now wished to visit the Holy Land to 
try to convert the Turks. While he was at Je-ru-sa- 
lem, he was sent for to coun-ter-act the her-e-sies of 
Luther, Me-lanc-thon, and Zwingle. 

When he reached Europe again, he saw that his 
ed-u-ca-tion was in-suf-fi-cient to meet the learned 
ar-cru-ments of these re-form-ers, so that we find this 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 57 

won-der-ful man, at the age of thirty-four, stud-y-ing 
Latin with little children at the Grammar School of 
Bar-ce-lo-na. During this time he preached, vis-it-ed 
the sick, and com-fort-ed the poor. He was ar-rest-ed 
and thrown into prison, because some said he was a 
ma-gi-cian. After many weeks he was lib-er-a-ted, 
and told to preach no more ''nov-el-ties." To this 
he an-swer-ed : ''He was not aware that preaching 
Jesus Christ was a nov-el-ty." 

Fearing for his lib-er-ty, he turned his steps to- 
ward France. At the age of thirty-seven, alone, in 
mid-winter, he walked from Spain to Paris. Here 
he preached, vis-it-ed hos-pit-als, and stud-i-ed. In 
1534, six en-thu-si-asts — among them the af-ter-ward 
famous Xavier — joined him to form a re-li-gious 
order gov-ern-ed by a mil-i-ta-ry code. ''The So-ci- 
e-ty of Jesus," was the name given. The members 
were to forget self, and do the will of the Gen-er-al 
of the order. It was to be an army of de-vo-ted 
mis-sion-a-ries, fin-ish-ed scholars, pol-ish-ed gen-tle- 
men — in other words, Chris-tian men of the world, 
or the Im-i-ta-tors of the Life of Christ. The order 
was sanc-tion-ed by the Pope in 1540, and Ig-na-tius 
took up his res-i-dence at Rome, where he re-main-ed 
fifteen years, Gen-er-al of the order. He died in 
1556 at the age of sixty-five. The priests of this 
order are called Jes-u-its. 



S8 HISTORY OF MICH JG AN. 



CHAPTER VII. 

JES-U-IT MIS-SIONS. 

The youths wishing to join the Jes-u-it order 
were o-bhg-ed to pass a very rigid ex-am-in-a-tion. 
Only those of great nat-u-ral in-tel-h-gence, and who 
were thor-ough-ly im-press-ed with the ho-h-ness of 
their work, w^ere ac-cept-ed. Having become a 
member, years of study fol-low-ed, after which came 
years of toil and hardship. 

About sixty years after Loy-o-la's death, the Jes- 
u-its beran to take o^reat in-ter-est in mis-sion-a-rv 
work. They col-lect-ed money, gained the support 
of the King of France, and in 1625 sent some of 
their priests to New France. In their life in Can- 
a-da and Maine, they lived aloof from the whites, 
their missions being lo-ca-ted in the midst of In-di-an 
vil-la-ges. They knew they could only win the hearts 
of the red men by living as they did, eating and 
sleeping as they ate and slept. But they suf-fer-ed 
untold hardships. Used to the re-fine-ments of civ-il- 
iz-ed nations, gentle and polite in manner, un-ac-cus- 
tom-ed to a cold climate, their lives gave ev-i-dence 
of their loy-al-ty to the Christian cause. Over the 
waters of un-ex-plor-ed rivers and tur-bu-lent lakes. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 5p 

they sailed, bare-foot, lest their shoes should injure 
the canoes ; often wading whole days along the river 
banks, pushing and pulling their boats over swift 
rapids, with no food but corn, crushed between two 
stones, wet with water, and now and then a little fish 
and game; or, in winter, day by day, wading through 
the deep snow and rain to visit distant Huron vil- 
la-ges, that the sav-a-ges might hear the good tidings 
of Christ's mission to men on earth. Such cares and 
labor filled up the measure of their lives. The In- 
di-ans with whom the French al-li-ed themselves — 
the Al-gon-quin tribes — re-ceiv-ed the Jes-u-its very 
kindly, and ap-pear-ed to listen to the priests sent 
among them with in-ter-est, es-pe-cial-ly after some 
of the order were able to speak the In-di-an lan- 
guage. This was a long and ar-du-ous task, as the 
dif-fer-ent tribes used dif-fer-ent di-a-lects. 

The French, under Champlain, as you re-mem- 
ber, had made fierce en-e-miesof the In-di-ans south 
of Lake Erie, called the Five Nations, or I-ro-quois. 
A Frenchman, priest or trader, that hap-pen-ed to 
fall into the hands of an I-ro-quois band, was shown 
no mercy. 

The first mis-sion-a-ry sent to the Hurons who 
re-main-ed to preach per-ma-nent-ly, was Father 
Brebeuf, of the Jes-u-it order. "He was ano-ble-man 
by birth and nature," says a recent writer. Hand- 



6o HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

some, portly and tall, brave, proud and just — a sol- 
dier in ev-er-y qual-i-ty. 

The I-ro-quois had con-stant-ly on hand wars 
with the Al-gon-quins. A hundred braves would 
as-sem-ble at Lake Erie, leap into then" canoes and 
attack some near tribe, burn its village, take captives, 
and carry away what-ev-er pro-vis-ions had been 
ac-cu-mu-la-ted for winter. 

Upon one of these ex-cur-sions, St. Louis, the 
name of Brebeuf s mission, was burnt. The helpless 
Father was taken by the mad sav-a-ges, stripped and 
bound to an as-so-ci-ate priest named Lalemant, and 
driven three miles to an-oth-er mission. Here they 
were met by others of the braves, who beat them 
with sticks and clubs as they passed into the lodge. 
They were then bound to stakes, as were the other 
captives present. Seeing some of his Huron con- 
verts about him, Brebeuf urged them to look to 
Heaven for res-ig-na-tion. For this the tor-tur-ing 
Lro-quois seized burning brands, and scorched him 
from head to foot. And still he con-tin-u-ed to ex- 
hort all about him to put then' trust in God. For 
this, his under lip was cut away. Still the Father — 
now fifty years old — stood erect and showed no sign 
of pain. This en-rag-ed the sav-a-ges. Lalemant 
was now taken, and strips of bark cov-er-cd with 
pitch tied to his naked body. The bark was then 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



6r 



set fire to, and as the flames en-cir-cled his head he 
called out in ag-o-niz-ing tones to Brebeuf. This 
aged priest was then taken, and a collar of hot hatch- 
ets hunu^ about his neck, and still he re-main-ed 




LALEMANT TIED TO THE STAKE. 



un-mov-ed. While suf-fer-ing these torments, a ren- 
e-gade Huron cried out: ''Let the priest have some 
hot water; we have had enough of his cold water." 
In-stant-ly the kettle was hung over the fire, and as 
soon as hot, these dying priests were bap-tiz-ed with 



62 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

its scalding- contents. As though ren-der-ed in-sen- 
si-ble to pain by his heav-en-ly zeal, Brebeuf never 
flinched or ut-ter-ed a cry of anguish under this ter- 
ri-ble ordeal. 

Dying, his body was cut to pieces and eaten, and 
the blood of his heart drank, in the hope of in-spir- 
ing themselves with the same courage shown by this 
in-dom-it-a-ble priest. 

Later, in 1642, an-oth-er Jes-u-it mis-sion-a-ry, 
named Jogues, and who had la-bor-ed in the same 
In-di-an village with the brave Brebeuf, started to 
Quebec for supplies. Two other priests and a few 
Hurons ac-com-pa-ni-ed him. While sailing down 
the St. Lawrence River, they were met by an-oth-er 
mur-der-ous band of Lro-quois, who, taking the whole 
party on shore, im-me-di-ate-ly burnt the Hurons, 
saving the priests for pro-long-ed torture. In the 
ex-cite-ment of the attack, one of the Fathers had 
raised his gun and shot an Lro-quois. There-up-on, 
the in-fu-ri-a-ted sav-a-ges rushed upon him, tore off 
his fingers with their teeth, and ran a spear through 
his hand. Throwing himself, shrieking, upon the 
neck of Father Jogues, who at-tempt-ed to shield 
him, an In-di-an caught the hand of the Father and 
chewed his fingers off in the same manner. 

For thirteen days the tor-tur-ed men were made 
to follow the Lro-quois on their journey home. Upon 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 63 

nearing a Mohawk village, some of the band hur- 
ri-ed on to announce the ar-riv-al of the white cap- 
tives. They were first made to run the gauntlet 
before en-ter-ing. Cov-er-ed with blood, when night 
came they were thrown upon their backs, and their 
arms and legs bound to stakes. One had his thumb 
sawed off with a clam-shell, it taking the woman 
forced to commit the cruel deed, all day to ac-com- 
plish it. This same priest was killed some time 
after, because he was de-tect-ed in making the sign 
of the cross upon the forehead of a sick In-di-an 
child. 

Jogues was held in cap-tiv-i-ty for nearly a year 
by the I-ro-quois, who com-pell-ed him to cut and 
bring their wood, and to perform all sorts of me-ni-al 
work for their squaws. The braves taking him to 
Al-ba-ny on one of their trading ex-pe-di-tions, he 
was helped to escape to France by a Hol-land-er 
named Van Curler. When the Queen saw his poor, 
mu-ti-la-ted hand, she took it in hers and kissed it 
through her tears. 

^ An-oth-er most worthy Jes-u-it was Father Rasles. 
His first mission was among In-di-ans of the West. 
Being a very suc-cess-ful priest, he was sent to A-ca- 
di-a, to the In-di-an village of Nor-ridge-wock, now 
in Maine. He showed his forest children how to 
build a chapel, and being a painter, he dec-o-ra-ted 



64 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



its in-te-ri-or with many sacred pictures, which 
proved very ef-fect-ive as il-lus-tra-tions of his re-h- 
gious teachings. 

He taught them that the ter-ri-ble self-tor-ture 

that some tribes prac- 
tic-ed, was not pleasing 
to their Great Spirit, 
nor to the God of the 
white man. He told 
them that they must 
work, dig, and raise 
corn, and catch fish 
enough, to keep them 
in food during the long 
winters of A-ca-dia. 
They loved him very 
much, and were never 
so happy as when their 
good father would con- 
sent to ac-com-pa-ny 
them on their tiresome 
hunting ex-cur-sions. 
With this tribe he 
lived nearly thirty years, 
often spending days with only a few kernels of parched 
corn or acorns to eat, but always con-tent-ed and 
busy; for the welfare of his mission was his only 




AN IN-DI-AN A-TONE-MENT 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



65 



thought in Hfe. He was killed by a party of two 
hundred men under command of Captains Harmon 
and Moulton, sent by the Mass-a-chu-setts' col-o- 
nists to destroy the mission. They came to the vil- 
lage while the In-di-ans were away, and sud-den-ly 



,-- J 



J 







*N*^<~- 



vVv. 



DEATH OF RASLES. 



firing upon the women and children, many of them 
rushed into the river and were drowned, or shot 
while in the water. Their aged priest was killed, 
and his scalp car-ri-ed to Boston with that of the 
Chief, Bom-ba-zin. Upon o-pen-ing Father Rasles' 
'* strong box" — which had been taken before the 



66 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



mas-sa-cre — a dic-tion-a-ry of the Nor-ridge-wock 
language was found, upon which the priest had been 







^^^ " jA^^.-t^^"' 



MON-U-MENT TO RASLES. 



at work for thirty years. He had taught some of the 
In-di-ans to write, and could hold a cor-re-spond-ence 
with them in their own laneuaee. • 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 67 

Some fifty years ago, Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, 
pur-chas-ed an acre of ground on the spot where the 
old chapel stood — at the junction of the Ken-ne-bec 
and Sandy River — and e-rect-ed thereon a granite 
ob-e-hsk, nearly twenty feet high, to the mem-o-ry of 
the noble old priest. 

The only excuse the col-o-nists. gave for burning 
his church, shooting him down like a dog, and de- 
stroy-ing and scat-ter-ing the Nor-ridge-wock tribe, 
was, that the priest had en-cour-ag-ed the In-di-ans 
to make dep-re-da-tions on the English settlers along 
the sea-coast, and rivers of New England. Father 
Rasles came to Can-a-da in 1689, and was sixty-six 
years old when shot at **01d Point." 

These were some of the sac-ri-fi-ces made by the 
Jes-u-its in the early set-tle-ment of the North, East 
and West of A-mer-i-ca. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DIS-COV-ER-IES OF MICH-I-GAN. 

The first white men to set foot on what is now a 
part of the soil of Mich-i-gan, were two Jes-u-it 
priests — Father Raymbault and the tor-tur-ed Jo- 
gues. A year before the latter's capture by the I-ro- 



68 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



quols, these un-tir-ing zealots started from the Huron 
mission — es-tab-hsh-ed by Father Brebeuf — and 
sailed north the whole length of the Geor-gi-an Bay. 

For sev-en-teen long 
days they paddled 
their canoe over its 
high waves. Bruised, 
weary, hungry and 
half sick, they found 
themselves on the sev- 
en-teenth day en-ter- 
ing a group of islands. 
Threading their way, 
they soon came to 
the mouth of a river 
which they named the 
St. Marie. Pro-ceed- 
ing up the river they 
came to a high water- 
fall which they called 
Sault St. Marie. 
Here they found an 
In-di-an village con- 
tain-ing about two thousand in-hab-it-ants. The 
In-di-ans always showed great love for the pic-tur- 
esque, and good judgment in the se-lec-tion of their 
village and en-camp-ment sites. Sault St. Marie 




IN-DI-AN MODE OK LUR-I-AL. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. , ; 

was, indeed, one of "Nature's sweet re-tire-ments." 
The two priests were struck with the nat-u-ral beauty 
of the landscape, and wished to found a mission here 
im-me-di-ate-ly. 

During the spring and summer, great numbers 
of In-di-ans vis-it-ed the place to supply themselves 
with white-fish — the water 
of the river seeming alive 
with them. On this ac- 
count they also con-sid-er-ed 
it a good lo-ca-tion for a 
trading-post. The death 
from con-sump-tion of 
Raymbault, and the cap- 
ture of Jogues, pre-vent-ed 
their plans from being car- 
ri-ed out at this time. wampum. 

A little later on. Father 
Mesnard at-tempt-ed to explore the Great Lakes. 
He passed over the same route, en-ter-ed White-fish 
Bay, and on to Lake Su-pe-ri-or. One day, while 
sailing along the shore lined with gi-gan-tic trees, he 
re-quest-ed the In-di-an guide to land him. Wan- 
der-ing away into the dense forest, he was never 
heard of more. 

Some years after, in 1668, two priests — Mar- 
quette and Al-lou-ez — car-ri-ed out the wishes of 




70 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Jogues and Raymbault, and founded the mission at 
Sault St. Marie. They made a map of only what 
they had act-u-al-ly seen, which to this day is con- 
sid-er-ed a won-der-ful-ly correct rep-re-sen-ta-tion of 
the upper parts of Lake Huron and Mich-i-gan. 

They marked the copper region of Ke-wee-naw, 
though not much in-for-ma-tion re-gard-ing the quan- 
tify of ore to be found there, could be ob-tain-ed — 
the In-di-ans de-clar-ing their water-gods were op- 
pos-ed to dis-turb-ance of the precious metal. Pieces 
of clear ore were car-ri-ed by the In-di-ans in their 
haz-ard-ous ex-cur-sions upon the lakes, as it was 
be-liev-ed, no In-di-an would perish by drowning, if 
pos-sess-ed of one of these charms. Three years 
after, in 1671, a great council of fourteen tribes was 
called at Sault St. Marie. 

The French sought to ally themselves by a 
friendly a-gree-ment with these tribes, to aid them 
when called upon, and in turn to extend the power 
of France on the A-mer-i-can Con-ti-nent. The 
Jes-u-it priest, Al-lou-ez, con-duct-ed the cer-e-mo- 
nies. A large wooden cross was blessed, and while 
It was being raised, the priest and soldiers who came 
with of-fi-cer M. de Lusson, chanted the ''Vex-il-la." 
The coat of arms of France (the Fleitr de Lis) was 
next hung upon a cedar post, the French, the while, 
chanting the *'Ex-au-di-at." *: 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



71 



The com-man-der, M. de Lusson, now took pos- 
ses-sion, in the name of the King of France, of ''all 
the land lying between the east 
and the west, and from Mon- 
tre-al to the south, as far as could 
be done," after which, a salvo 
was fired, and great shouting 
in-dulg-ed in by all present. 
Father Al-lou-ez fol-low-ed with 
a speech to the In-di-ans, de- 
scrib-ing the belief which the 
cross rep-re-sent-ed, and the hap- 
pi-ness here and hereafter which 
came to those who em-brac-ed 
it. Then he told them of the 
pow-er-ful Kingof France; what 
a mighty o-non-tio (ruler) he was ; 
that no king dared make war 
upon him, and all nations had 
humbly sued him for peace." 

The In-di-an Chiefs lis-ten- 
ed, and agreed to abide by the 
action of the council, which they 
did. 

I suppose my young readers 
think, that before the Spanish, 
French and English came to 




IN-DIAN PIPES- 



7^ HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

disturb, and take away from these forest children 
their skins and land, their lives were little else than 
one long, sunny day; that they roamed through the 
woods, hunting the partridge, deer, wolf, fox, wild- 
cat and bear, and, at night making their beds upon 
sweet-smelling cedar boughs, laid themselves down 
and slept qui-et-ly until the dawn of day. But this 
is far from being the way in which they lived. It 
has been or-dain-ed that ev-er-v livincr thing: that eats 
must work. The insects are always busy sup-ply-ing 
themselves and their young with food ; the an-i-mals 
of the forest are ever upon the alert, watching for an 
ap-pe-tiz-ing meal. The In-di-ans worked just as 
hard as the an-i-mals, often suf-fer-ed untold mis-er-y 
on account of the cold, deep snow, and scar-ci-ty of 
game. Again, they were con-tin-u-al-ly at war with 
each other, each struggling for the mas-ter-y. Some- 
times a whole tribe was de-stroy-ed by a tribe whose 
hunting-grounds had been in-va-cled. No; their lives 
were far from being com-fort-a-ble or happy before 
the ap-pear-ance of the white man in their midst. 

But if there was a par-a-dise in the northwest for 
the red man, Mich-i-gan was its lo-ca-tion. The 
a-bun-dance of fish in her rivers and lakes; the great 
va-ri-e-ty of game in her well-wa-ter-ed area; her 
pleasant climate and dense pro-tect-ing forests, 
made life to them less toilsome, and, therefore, more 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. yj 

a-gree-a-ble, than in other portions of the country. 
In the southern part, they tilled enough to plant 
beans, corn, and pumpkins, which re-quir-ed but little 
work to make grow. They car-ri-ed their corn wher- 
ev-er they went. It was called the spirit's grain — 
mon da7ne7t. They wor-ship-ed the sun, moon and 
stars. Their Great Spirit they called ^'Man-i-to ;" 
lesser di-vin-i-ties, ''O-way-neo," and ''Wa-con-da." 
They had their prophets, med-i-cine men, story-tell- 
ers, and songs for war or death. 

The In-di-ans had an idea of rail-er-y, for the Al- 
gon-quins called the I-ro-quois, ** Windy Tongues;" 
the I-ro-quois re-tort-ed by calling them, **Bark 
Eaters." They also had some idea of de-port-ment; 
for when the priests at the Huron Mission had a 
clock sent them, the In-di-ans were very cu-ri-ous, 
and would come and wait for hours to hear it strike. 
They thought it alive, and called it the ^'Captain." 

''What does he say?" in-quir-ed an In-di-an upon 
first hearing the clock strike. 

*' He says," re-pli-ed the Father, ''when he strikes 
twelve times, 'Hang on the kettle;' but when he 
strikes/^^/r times, 'Get up and go;'" and the In-di-ans 
never tar-ri-ed after that, later than four o'clock. 

This, we may believe, was a much longed-for 
hour by the priests ; an hour when re-liev-ed from 
their daily cares they were able to rest, spend the 



y^ HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

e-ven-ing en-gag-ed in en-li-ven-ing con-ver-sa-tion, or 
in the per-form-ance of the many per-son-al serv-i-ces 
their busy Hfe re-quir-ed. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Marquette's mission of mack-i-naw. 

Owing to the use the In-di-ans made of the Ot- 
ta-wa River for car-ry-ing their furs to Mon-tre-al and 
Quebec, the northern part of Mich-i-gan was nat-u- 
ral-ly the first to be vis-it-ed. 

Three years after Marquette and Al-lou-ez had 
founded the Sault St. Marie Mission, Marquette 
en-ter-ed the Straits of Mack-i-naw in his birch canoe, 
and landing at a point op-po-site the present site of 
the town of Mack-i-naw, called it St. Ignace. Here 
he built a chapel, and began preaching, and teaching 
the In-di-ans. He spoke the Al-gon-quin and I-ro- 
quois di-a-lects, which knowledge in-creas-ed his im- 
port-ance as a mis-sion-a-ry. Being told by the Su- 
pe-ri-orof the Jes-u-it Mission at Quebec, that he was 
too nec-es-sa-ry to the order to spend his time en- 
tire-ly in so small a village, Marquette an-swer-ed, 
'T am ready to leave Mack-i-naw in the hands of 
an-oth-er mis-sion-a-ry at your request, in order to 




MACK-I-NAW SCEN-ER-Y. 



75 



76 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 



tell new tribes of our great God, whom they now 
know nothing of. " The French, through the In-di- 
ans, were con-tin-u-al-ly hearing fab-u-lous stories 
about a great river to the west, running north and 
south. Who was so well a-dapt-ed to look for this 

river as Mar- 



quette 



— the 
priest, scholar, 
and ex-plor-er? 
The In-di-ans 
would not harm 
h i m , f o r he 
would not harm 
them ; then he 
could tell all 
about the coun- 
try when he re- 
turn-ed, which 
was a great 
thing in those days. The people wanted ge-o-graph- 
ic-al in-for-ma-tion of the Great West, which Mar- 
quette was able to fur-nish. Ac-cord-ing-ly, in May, 
1673, Marquette, Jol-i-et, and five Frenchmen, in 
two canoes, started from Mack-i-naw and sailed down 
Lake Mich-i-gan. They en-ter-ed Green Bay, from 
thence to Fox River, and crossing a portage, en-ter-ed 
the Wis-con-sin, which empties into the Mis-sis-sip-pi. 




GLD FORT MACK-I-NAW. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



77 



Down this mighty river they floated with the 
current, day after day. Marquette was not a very 
strong man, and during this voyage became very sick. 
When near the mouth of the Ar-kan-sas, they 
thought they 
might be ap- 
proaching some 
Spanish set-tle- 
ment, the Span- 
ish claiming the 
mouth of the 
Mis-sis-sip-pi 
on account of 
De Soto's dis- 
cov-er-y, and so 
they de-cid-ed 
to turn back. 

In passing some high rocks, not far from where 
St. Louis now stands, Marquette thought he saw 
some pictures painted, looking something like those 
on the fol-low-ing page. The good priest thought 
these coarse pictures were the gods or devils which 
the In-di-ans wor-ship-ed, and his men were told to 
go and destroy them, which they did. 

During this e-vent-ful voyage the good priest grew 
much worse, and seemed only to wish to return to 
the St. Ignace Mission before he died. On July 




MARQUETTE AND JOL-I-ET 
DE-SCEND-ING THE MIS- 
SIS-SIP-PI RIVER. 



18 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 




I 7th, they started back, and finding the mouth of a 

river to the east, they en-ter-ed and sailed up the 

Ill-i-nois River, en-ter-ed the lake, reaching the mis- 
sion at Green Bay, in Sep- 
tember. For a year the 
priest was too sick to leave 
the mission. During the 
two years after the dis- 
co v-er-y of the Mis-sis-sip- 
pi, he con-tin-u-ed to write, 
preach to the In-di-ans, 

and build chapels for the spread of his Master's truth. 
At Kas-kas-kia — nearly op-po-site where St. 

Louis now stands — while cel-e-bra-ting Easter, in 

1675, the con-scious- 

ness of death's near 

approach was im-press- 

ed upon him. He 

wished to reach his old 

Mission of St. Ignace, 

at Mack-i-naw, before 

being called hence. 

Two Frenchmen con- 

sent-ed to grat-i-fy this 

desire. Making the canoe as com-fort-a-ble as pos- 

si-ble, they started up the cold lake toward the 

straits. < 




HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



When near the mouth of a small river on the 
Mich-i-gan side, Marquette told his faithful attend- 
ants he could go no further. Im-me-di-ate-ly land- 
ing, they brought some pine branches, made a forest 
bed, and the dying Father was care-ful-ly placed upon 
it. Taking his cru-ci-fix from his bosom, he prayed 
for his church, for himself, his com-pan-ions, and the 
whole world. Asking to be left alone with his own 
holy thoughts for awhile, the men re-tir-ed to a spot 
within hearing distance. At the end of a short half 
hour they re-turn-ed to find him breathing his last ; 
upon his face rested the smile of peace and hope, 
be-tok-en-ing the knowledge of a well-spent life. 
His weeping at-tend-ants dug a grave by the river 
bank, and with rev-er-ent hands cov-er-ed his worn 
and e-ma-ci-a-ted body with the warm earth of 



sprmg. 



Some years after, a band of roving In-di-ans en- 
ter-ing the river now called Marquette, and seeing a 
wooden cross, knew it to be the grave of a '* Black 
Gown." Marquette's bones were taken up, car-ri-ed 
away, and bur-i-ed at the nearest chapel. In 1877, 
they were re-in-ter-red at Mack-i-naw, where he 
wished to be bur-i-ed. It is hoped his precious bones 
will never be dis-turb-ed again. To his mem-o-ry 
Mich-i-gan is much in-debt-ed. He was, by far, the 
foremost dis-cov-er-er of the northwest. 



8o HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



CHAPTER X. 

DIS-COV-ER-Y OF DETROIT. 

In 1672, Count Fron-te-nac was ap-point-ed Gov- 
ern-or-Gen-er-al of Can-a-da. The French were 
always pushing toward Mich-i-gan. They planted 
their missions and trading-houses at the same places; 
by kindness and re-li-gion they had suc-ceed-ed in 
founding missions and posts at Sault St. Marie, 
Mack-i-naw, Green Bay, Chi-ca-go and St. Joseph. 
At the outlet of Lake On-ta-ri-o was a fort called 
Fron-te-nac. At this time a man lived there of con- 
sid-er-a-ble im-port-ance. He traded with the In-di- 
ans, and was hon-or-a-ble in his dealings with them. 
His name was Robert La Salle. 

Count Fron-te-nac seeing that he was very en-er- 
get-ic and careful m his bus-i-ness with the traders, 
ad-vis-ed him to go to France, where he was kindly 
re-ceiv-ed at court, made a Cav-a-lier, given the mo- 
nop-o-ly of trade with the I-ro-quois, and a large tract 
of land around Fort Fron-te-nac. For this he was 
to keep the fort ready for use against any hostile 
tribes that should attempt to take it. 

When Fron-te-nac was sent to Can-a-da it was 
ex-pect-ed he would do something to bring thej-ro- 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 8i 

quois into more friendly re-la-tions with the French. 
They had killed so many mis-sipn-a-ries and traders 
that the French began to think they would not be 
able to hold the western part of Can-a-da, unless 
peace could be made with these blood-thirsty sav-a- 
ges. So he had or-der-ed a chain of forts to be built 
along the lakes thus far dis-cov-er-ed. 

After La Salle had been made a no-ble-man by 
Louis XV., he re-turn-ed to Fort Fron-te-nac, and 
his men began to clear the land, build houses for the 
French traders, and La Salle to act the part of a 
small king. The In-di-ans built huts about the fort, 
sheep and cattle were soon to be seen roaming over 
the pasture lands, and corn-fields waved in the sum- 
mer's sun. But, the same as Marquette, La Salle 
could not remain happy until he had ex-plor-ed the 
great river so much talked about, into which he hoped 
to find other rivers flowing; rivers, perhaps, that 
would lead to the passage to In-di-a, still looked for. 
So he re-sign-ed his command of Fort Fron-te-nac, 
and taking his men, and all the money he could bor- 
row, started for the head of Lake Erie, where he 
built a rough fort, and called it Fort Ni-ag-a-ra. He 
had read Marquette's book of his six-months' voyage 
down the Mis-sis-sip-pi. Although in-tend-ing soon 
to follow him, he had no idea of risking his life in so 
frail a boat as a canoe. So, for the next year, he 



82 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

bus-i-ed himself in building a sort of sloop, which he 
named ''The Griffin." She car-ri-ed five guns, and 
was of sixty tons burden. La Salle was her com- 
rnand-er, and Father Louis Hen-ne-pin, the mis-sion- 
a-ry, his trusted com-pan-ion. On the loth of Au- 
gust, 1679, after sailing the length of Lake Erie, they 
came upon the swift outlet of the Detroit River. 

In de-scrib-ing this river, or strait, Hen-ne-pin 
says: **It is the finest strait in the world. It is 
twenty-five miles long, in some places two miles wide, 
and deep enough to float large vessels. The game 
was so a-bun-dant upon its clear waters, that they 
ar-rang-ed themselves in lines at the approach of the 
canoes to allow them to pass." 

They found an In-di-an village upon the spot 
where Detroit now stands. Con-tin-u-ing the voyage, 
La Salle dis-cov-er-ed the small lake at the head of 
the strait, and named it St. Clair, on account of the 
clearness of its water. Reaching Mack-i-naw, he 
built a trading-house, and then crossed Lake Mich-i- 
gan with the first ''winged ship" that ever parted 
her blue waters. En-ter-ing the harbor of Green 
Bay, La Salle sold the Griffin's cargo, made up of all 
sorts of things to please the fancy of the In-di-ans, 
re-load-ed her with a cargo of rich furs, and started 
her back to Fort Ni-ag-a-ra, ex-pect-ing to pay his 
debts with the sale of his pelts. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 83 

It is sup-pos-ed the Griffin was lost in a storm. 
After waiting a long time for its return, La Salle and 
his men took canoes and crossed over to St. Joseph's 
Mission and trading-post, in Mich-i-gan. The re- 
main-der of this brave man's his-to-ry has nothing to 
do with the set-tle-ment of Mich-i-gan; but I would 
advise you to read it, for it is the painful story of a 
life de-vot-ed to the dis-cov-er-y and en-large-ment of 
French ter-ri-to-ry in A-mer-i-ca. 

Although Hen-ne-pin had de-scrib-ed the beau- 
ti-ful strait, in 1679, calling it d'Etroit, and had 
spoken of its being the door to the upper lakes, no 
steps were taken to make it a trading-post for twenty- 
two years, or until the English began to talk about 
buying it of the I-ro-quois, who claimed its own-er- 
ship. Then the Gov-ern-or-Gen-er-al of Can-a-da, 
with em-pha-sis, said: *'The strait be-longs to King 
Louis XIV. of France, and to no-bod-y else." 

Ac-cord-ing-ly, in i 799, the of-fi-cer in command 
at Mack-i-naw — Antoine de la Motte Ca-dil-lac — 
went to France, and told the King's minister how 
ad-van-ta-geous it would be to their trade to build a 
fort at the head of the strait ; he said, "all the waters 
of the great lakes pass through it ; that the English 
were trying to get the trade of the In-di-ans, and if a 
fort were built here, they would a-ban-don the hope 
of ever doing it. Besides, the sav-a-ges had not 



84 



■HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



hunted south of the St. Clah' Lake, and if they could 
have a market near, they would bring to the French 
traders the skins of the stao-, deer, elk, roe-buck, 




FORT PONT-CHAR-TRAIN (dETROIt), 1705. 

black bear and buf-fa-lo, with wolves, otter, wild-cat, 
beaver, and other small an-i-mals." 

Louis XIV. gave his consent to erect the fort; 
gave Ca-dil-lac a com-mis-sion as com-man-dant, and 
'* fifteen acres square of land wher-ev-er on d'Etroit 
the new fort should be es-tab-lish-ed." 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 83 

Re-turn-ing to Can-a-da, Lord Ca-dil-lac started 
for his post in com-pa-ny with fifty soldiers, and fifty 
traders and workmen, ar-riv-ing there on the 24th of 
July, 1 70 1. A high, wooden-picket fence, in-clos- 
ing a few log huts, thatched with grass, was the royal 
structure called Fort Pont-char-train. 



CHAPTER XL 

HOW THE PEOPLE OF NEW FRANCE LIVED. 

About the time Lord Ca-dil-lac founded Detroit, 
the King of France — called the ''Grand Monarch "- 



was doing ev-er-y-thing in his power to build up his 
col-o-ny across the At-lan-tic. To men of wealth, 
fam-i-ly, and those who had helped him in his many 
wars, he gave great tracts of land, and com-pell-ed 
many of his subjects to go and settle on them. 

A reg-i-ment of soldiers was sent to defend the 
col-o-ny against the Lro-quois. These troops had 
seen hard service in fio-htino: the Turks. Needino- 
four com-pa-nies again, those that were willing to re- 
main were given land and money, or pro-vis-ions 
enough to last a year. At the forts — such as Mack- 
i-naw and Detroit — he had placed a com-mand-er, 
who made the laws for the com-mu-ni-tv, and saw 



S6 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



that they were ex-e-cu-ted. The merchants within 
the stockade were the next in social po-si-tion to the 
of-fi-cers and priests; the In-di-an traders next; and 
last, the men who tilled the soil, and did the drudg- 
er-y of the in-hab-it-ants. Life in these forts was 




FRENCH TRADERS BUYING PELTS. 



something like life in a little mon-arch-y. Ev-er-y- 
thing was car-ri-ed on by titles and the su-pe-ri-or-i-ty 
of birth. The French com-man-dant and his of-fi-cers 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 87 

were dressed in blue coats, turned up and faced 
with white, and trimmed with gold lace, while from 
their sides hung handsome swords. The priests were 
very active and useful persons to these small set-tle- 
ments. They wore long, black robes, fas-ten-ed about 
the waist with a cord, from which hung silver chains 
sus-pend-ing a cru-ci-fix. They per-form-ed the mar- 
ri-age cer-e-mo-nies, vis-it-ed the sick, bap-tiz-ed and 
taught the children when well, bur-i-ed them when 
dead, and took care of the church and the morals of 
the col-o-nists. The peasant, or farmer, wore a 
coarse, blue surtout, fas-ten-ed round the waist with 
a red strap or sash, a red cap on his head, in the band 
of which gen-er-al-ly glit-ter-ed a sharp scalping-knife. 
The trading hunters wore buf-fa-lo-skin pan-ta-loons, 
fringed at the sides, a blouse shirt, and drooping 
feathers in hats of ev-er-y shape and hue. The wo- 
men, after awhile, made the cloth for their own 
clothes, and for the In-di-an trade. They worked 
in-dus-tri-ous-ly by day, at-tend-ed mass reg-u-lar-ly, 
and danced when-ev-er the op-por-tu-ni-ty of-fer-ed. 
The French pi-o-neers were a good and hardy people 
from the sea-far-ing towns of Western France. 

Later on, the King un-der-took to furnish ev-er-y 
man with a wife who wanted one. If the peasant 
had built himself a house, plowed his land which the 
King had given him, and had a little money laid up. 



SS ■ HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ^ 

he was the man the King thought the most of, and 
wanted him to have the best wife. But if he had 
nothing, and wished to marry, the King still was 
willing to give him a partner with the land. Ship- 
loads of young girls came across the At-lan-tic at the 
King's expense, and were placed under the care of 
the Mother Su-pe-ri-or of the convent at Quebec, 
until they should be called for by some French col-o- 
nist in need of a wife. When news of the ships 
ar-riv-al was passed around the set-tle-mentsand forts, 
of-fi-cers, soldiers, traders, workmen and farmers, all 
hur-ri-ed up to the Town Hall, and se-lect-ed the girl 
whose looks pleased him best. 

In col-lect-ing these girls in France, the King 
said ''the fleshy women and girls were the best to 
take, because they could stand the cold weather bet- 
ter, and were u-su-al-ly the most cheerful and con- 
tent-ed people." 

I think you will agree with me that this was an 
easy way of settling matters for the time-being; but 
it did not answer after the country was older. 

It is said that Count Ca-dil-lac, the founder of 
Detroit, "for taking a wife and settling in the coun- 
try, was given fifteen hundred livres." 

The first white child bap-tiz-ed in Detroit, was 
Marie Theresa, daughter of Com-man-dant Ca-dil-lac 
and his wife, The-re-sa. < 



BSgg ggggrfggwgi'^wg 




miim^^^^^^m 



A FARMER S HUT IN WINTER. 



89 



go 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



When a titled man was given, or bought of the 
Kine, a lanjc tract of land, he set his men to work 
to build him a man-o-ri-al house, gen-er-al-ly on the 
bank of a river, because in those days the river was 
the people's road. There he became the Grand 
Seignior. He had vassals, or men who must serve 
him in war when the King called on him to furnish 
troops. These men gen-er-al-ly lived on the Grand 
Seignior's estate. On bended knees they prom-is-ed 
to attach themselves to his in-ter-ests, to work for 
him, to die for him if need be. For the use of 
the land they cul-ti-va-ted they paid him a small tax, 
such as a few chickens, or dollars a year. If the 
Grand Seignior had a great deal of land, these taxes 
a-mount-ed to con-sid-er-a-ble in a year. But he was 
o-blig-ed to keep a church and school in op-e-ra- 
tion, and do the things the people now do for them- 
selves This kind of pa-rent-al gov-ern-ment was 
called Feu-dal-ism. It no longer exists in civ-il-ized 
countries. But it an-swer-ed very well in the early 
times, when ev-er-y man who had an-y-thing, was 
o-blig-ed to take care of his own life and prop-er-ty 
with his own army. Now the people pay the gov- 
ern-ment for doing it. 

I suppose you wonder if these early settlers had 
any sports and a-muse-ments? To be sure they did. 
Their a-muse-ments, how-ev-er, were quite dif-fer-ent 




HUNTER AT NIGHT. 



91 



g2 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

from those of the Pu-ri-tans who settled New Eng- 
land. The French did not think it wrong to sing 
gay songs, and dance, to dress in bright colors, or be 
merry, when prayers and mass was over. 

In the months of August, Sep-tem-ber and Oc-to- 
ber, the men that worked at all, worked very hard, 
and pre-par-ed for winter. As the col-o-ny grew, 
ships from France brought them all sorts of nice 
things to wear, and the people, settled along the St. 
Lawrence and Rich-e-lieu Rivers, came to Mon-tre-al 
and Quebec to buy what they needed for the winter. 
They filled their cellars with all sorts of veg-e-ta-bles 
from their estates, and when the cold weather came 
on, added many kinds of frozen meats, game, fowls 
and fish. 

Then the people had little to do, and their pleas- 
ures began. The fam-i-lies of the Seigniors, the gov- 
ern-ment of-fi-cials, with army of-fi-cers and the cure, 
mostly all titled men, had their balls and dinners, 
and tried to feel as grand as their fellows at court, in 
France. 

The next class, the traders — for the people 
were di-vid-ed into classes — had their parties and 
balls, and one writer says, '*the women were very 
pretty, and knew how to behave themselves, too." 

The next class, the hunters and their as-so-ci-ates, 
were a more bois-ter-ous people ; they drank more 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



yj" 



wine, and danced longer at night ; but crim-i-nals 
were rarely found in the French col-o-nies, all being 
at-tach-ed to their re-li-gion, and through con-fes-sion, 
re-strain-ed from com-mit-ting wicked acts. 

Of their manners, a writer has said: ''The men 
in the col-o-ny are polite, raising their hats to ev-er-y 
ac-quaint-ance — how-ev-er slight — they chance to 
meet in the street. The 
women are all well-bred. 
They dress well, and take 
great care of their hair, 
which is always curled 
pret-ti-ly about their heads. 
Besides being careful and 
busy about their fam-i-ly \:^^^" 
affairs, they have time to ^^- 
laugh, joke, play games, 
and dance. They are 
cheerful and con-tent-ed, 
and no-bod-y can say that 
they lack either beauty, 
wit or grace." 




COUREUR DES BOIS. 



The young men, how- 
ev-er, were said to be too 
fond of hunting, and many 
of them formed such a taste for the wild and daring 
life of the In-di-ans, that they took squaws for wives, 



^^ HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

and dressed and lived like In-di-ans. They were 
called, coitretirs des bois (wood rangers). Their fam- 
i-lies were af-ter-ward called half-breeds, and gave 
the early settlers of Mich-i-gan con-sid-er-a-ble trouble 
after the gov-ern-ment changed. But, taken all to- 
geth-er, these early French people in A-mer-i-ca were 
very good, honest, and true people. They were will- 
ing that the In-di-ans should live with them, and 
never sought to cheat them out of their country by 
setting apart large tracts of land and saying, ''you 
must stay there, and hunt there, whether there is any 
game left, or not." 

But the French did not look out so well for them- 
selves as the English col-o-nists did in New Eng- 
land, and, therefore, did not prosper as well. Some 
writers have said, the French laughed and played 
away their lives and fortunes in Can-a-da, while the 
New Eng-land-ers worked, prayed, and saved up 
their money for their children's ben-e-fit. The 
French, doubtless, thought a little of life's pleasures 
be-long-ed to the fathers and mothers, leaving those 
who came after, the blessing of self-ex-er-tion, while 
the English de-ni-ed themselves almost ev-er-y-thing, 
to give their fam-i-lies ease and hap-pi-ness after their 
death. Which people do you think were nearest 
right ? 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



95 



CHAPTER XII. 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH WAR IN A-MER-I-CA. 

My young reader must bear in mind, that while 
the French ex-plor-ers — Cartier, De Monts, Cham- 
plain, Marquette and La Salle — were claiming new 
ter-ri-to-ry in the Northwest for France, the Eng- 
lish, settling in Vir-gin-i-a and New England, were 
trying to do the same for 
England. Both peoples 
were reaching out toward the 
Far West, and were busy 
planting set-tle-ments and 
trading-posts wher-ev-er the 
In-di-ans came in large num- 
bers. In Can-a-da, the 
shores of the St. Lawrence, 
the Rich-e-lieu, Detroit and 
St. Clair Rivers, were dotted 
with French farm-houses, 
towns and small vil-la-ges. 
Along the At-lan-tic coast, 
cities were springing up, to 
which the people from Scot- 
land, England, Ireland and Ger-ma-ny, were flocking 




OLD PEAR TREES IN DETROIT, PLANTED 
BY FRENCH SETTLERS. 



p(5 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

in ship-loads. But the French laid claim to all the 
land west of the Al-le-gha-ny and Cum-ber-land 
Mountains, and tried to pen up the English on the 
At-lan-tic coast. The English would not stay there, 
but still kept pushing on to the West. 

The French began to build forts — not very 
strong ones, we would think, to see them now — 
along their boundary line, to keep back these in-tru- 
ders. 

A French of-fi-cer, whom we would now call a 
far-see-ing man, once pro-pos-ed to his King, that he 
be al-low-ed to go and take New York from the 
Dutch, and shut up the English in New England. 
To make things still worse for the col-o-nists on both 
sides, their mother countries had been at war with 
each other, most of the time, for five hundred years. 
They were o-blig-ed, how-ev-er, to stop fighting long 
enough to recruit new armies, and collect money 
enough to put them in the field again; but, when this 
was done, hos-til-i-ties gen-er-al-ly begun anew. As 
soon as the news could reach the French, in Can-a-da, 
and the E nglish along the At-lan-tic shore, which, hap- 
pi-ly for the col-o-nists, took about two months at that 
time, then the English and their I n-di-an allies marched 
upon the French, or the French and their allies 
marched upon the English, burning set-tle-ments, 
mur-der-ing the settlers, and car-ry-ing fear- and 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. gy 

sorrow to ev-er-y household. Of all the peoples com- 
ing to A-mer-i-ca, the In-di-ans liked the French the 
best. They were kind to thern, and paid them hon- 
est-ly for their pelts and corn. So, when-ev-er fight- 
ing began, the largest numberof In-di-an tribes joined 
the French, though the fiercest, the I-ro-quois, at 
first were the allies of the English. 

The excuse they had on this side of the At-lan- 
tic for going to war with each other, was the claim 
the French made to a large tract of land on the 
O-hi-o River, which the King of England had grant- 
ed to a number of men called, '*The O-hi-o Com- 
pa-ny." This com-pa-ny was to settle the land ; but 
when-ev-er they tried to bring fam-i-lies there, the 
French sent troops, broke up the set-tle-ment, and 
sent the traders away. 

At this time, George Wash-ing-ton, whom you 
all know about, was twenty years old. He was a 
sur-vey-or, and held the rank of Major in the Col-o- 
ni-al British Army. He was sent with a letter to 
the French com-mand-er, near Lake Erie, telling 
him the French must not in-ter-fere with the set-de- 
ment of this land by the English. Four hundred 
miles this young Vir-gin-i-an trav-el-ed on foot through 
the wil-der-ness, to de-liv-er his letter and bring back 
a reply. 

The French re-fus-ed to allow the English to 



g8 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



oc-cu-py the land, and so, what is called, "The French 
and In-di-an War," came out of this re-fus-al. At 
this time there were about a million English col-o- 
nists, while the French num-ber-ed only about one 

hundred thousand. 
The English were the 
richest and most nu- 
mer-ous. But they were 
beaten in their first and 
second campaigns, and 
if Louis XV. of France, 
had not been such a 
spendthrift, and had 
saved his money to 
send more men to help 
his French col-o-nists, 
Can-a-da might have 
re-main-ed a French 
province to this day. 
But after fighting 




all along the border 



for four years ^ — from 
1755 to I 759 — the 



French were badly de- 
feat-ed at the ter-ri-ble battle of Quebec. Both com- 
mand-ers — Gen-er-al Wolf of the English forces, and 
Gen-er-al Montcalm of the French — were killed. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



99 



Then all the country which had be-long-ed to France 
for one hundred and fifty years, now became the 
prop-er-ty of England. Detroit was sur-ren-der-ed 
to a small force of British troops, under Major Robert 
Rogers, on the 8th of Sep-tem-ber, 1760. The flag 
of France which had floated over the fort for sixty 
years, was hauled down, and the Red Cross of Eng- 
land furled from its staff. 

The French troops were sent to Phil-a-del-phi-a, 
and the people 
who con-sent- 
ed to become 
the sub-jects of 
the King of 
England, were 
al-low-ed to re- 
main and keep 
their prop-er- 
ty. It is said 
the In-di-ans 
were much per- 
plex-ed at see- 
ing the large French force sur-ren-der to the few 
English troops who came to oc-cu-py the fort. They 
could not un-der-stand it, and when a year later, the 
posts of Mack-i-naw, Green Bay and Sault St. Marie, 
were taken pos-ses-sion of by the English, the In- 




MON-TRE-AL IN 1760, FROM AN OLD PRINT. 



100 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

cli-ans became greatly a-larm-ed. They thought, no 
doubt, they were to lose the whole earth. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



) 



PON-TI-AC S CON-SPIR-A-CY. 



While Major Rogers, of the English army, was 
on his way to oc-cu-py Detroit, he was met one night, 
just as his men were pre-par-ing to encamp, by a 
band of In-di-ans, who di-rect-ed him to make no fur- 
ther effort to enter the country, as their Chief had 
''barred their way." 

''Who is your Chief?" in-quir-ed the Major. 

"Pon-ti-ac; ruler of all this country!" was the 
answer. 

The Major said he would like to see this great 
Pon-ti-ac, if he was in that neigh-bor-hood. The 
band dis-ap-pear-ed, and in a short time the pow-er- 
ful Chief pre-sent-ed himself to the of-fi-cer. In a 
very haughty manner Pon-ti-ac in-quir-ed, "what his 
bus-i-ness was in that country, and how he had dared 
to enter it without his per-mis-sion?" 

Major Rogers then told him about the defeat of 
the French, which Pon-ti-ac, of course, knew all 
about, but was sa-ga-cious enough to try to secure for 




PON-TI-AC. 



lOI 



I02 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

the In-dl-ans the best terms pos-si-ble, in the change 
of the country's oc-cu-pa-tion. 

Major Rogers told Pon-ti-ac the English wished 
to live in peace with the In-di-ans, and would do as 
well by them as the French had done. The pipe of 
peace was smoked, and the troops, after a few days, 
were al-low-ed to proceed to Detroit. But still, the 
Chief was as much an en-e-my to the English as he 
had ever been. He de-clar-ed '*the red men had but 
one father, and he was King of France." 

The year after, when the British forces had taken 
pos-ses-sion of all the French forts, towns and vil-la- 
ges, and Pon-ti-ac began to fear the "happy hunting 
grounds" of all the tribes were about to pass into the 
hands of the English, he de-ter-min-ed to make one 
last, he-ro-ic effort, to save his people and his coun- 
try. To suc-cess-ful-ly ac-com-plish this bold design, 
Pon-ti-ac was o-blig-ed to resort to con-spir-a-cy. 
Recalled the Chiefs of the Huron, Pot-ta-wat-o-mies, 
I-ro-quois, Sen-e-cas, Del-a-wares, and others, to a 
secret council. To them he poured out his fears and 
griefs. He showed them how their good friends, 
the French, had been driven from their forts and 
homes; that unless they u-ni-ted to destroy ev-er-y 
in-vad-ing English man, woman or child, their lands 
and homes would be taken from them, when they 
must become slaves, or worse — starve to death. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 103 

At this time, in 1763, there were thirteen forts 
and posts west of the Al-le-gha-nies, gar-ri-son-ed by 
the Enghsh, to-wit: Forts Mack-i-naw, Pont-char- 
train, at Detroit, St. Josephs, Chartres, San-dus-ky, 
Mi-am-i, Oua-tan-on, Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, Ve- 
nan-go, Ni-ag-a-ra and DuQuesne. It wasde-cid-ed 
to attack these as nearly on the same day as pos-si- 
ble. Pon-ti-ac, who was made ''Gen-er-al-in-Chief" 
of all the tribes, chose for his share in this bloody 
work the fort at Detroit. So secret had been all his 
movements, that he be-liev-ed there could be no fail- 
ure of his plan. Mes-sen-gers had been sent back 
and forth between the tribes, the number of English 
troops counted at all the forts, and ev-er-y-thing was 
in read-i-ness for the attack on the 6th of May, 1763. 

On the 26th of May, the gar-ri-son of Fort St. 
Joseph num-ber-ed but fourteen soldiers and one 
ensign. The day was bright and warm. As the 
soldiers were em-ploy-ed in the va-ri-ous duties re- 
quir-ed in camp life, quite a party of Pot-ta-wat-o-mies 
care-less-ly strolled into the fort, as though in-tend-ing 
merely to pay a friendly visit to the new comers in 
their midst. Shortly, others saun-ter-ed in. All at 
once the fierce war-whoop pierced the ears of the 
troops, and in less time than it takes to tell the fear- 
ful story, ten soldiers lay dead at the blood-stained 
feet of the sav-a-ees. The ensien and three of his 



104 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

men, who had es-cap-ed the blows of the cruel tom-a- 
hawk, were now bound, hand and foot, and held 
pris-on-ers for future death or exchange, as it should 
please their captors. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MAS-SA-CRE AT FORT MACK-I-NAW. 

At this time, Mack-i-naw was a set-tle-ment of 
about thirty houses. Cedar pickets en-cir-cled the 
two acres of ground on which these houses stood. 
The In-di-ans still con-sid-er-ed the French alone had 
the right to trade with them, and although the King of 
France had form-al-ly given up the whole country to 
the King of England, by the treaty of 1763, the In- 
di-ans would not consent to it. 

To show you how one of those English traders, 
named Al-ex-an-der Henry, was treated, I will tell 
you his story, which is, also, the story of the mas-sa- 
cre of Fort Mack-i-naw. It seems, in those days, to 
do any bus-i-ness with the In-di-ans, the consent of 
the English Gov-ern-ment must be ob-tain-ed, the 
same as had been re-quir-ed from the French. When 
Mr. Henry had the per-mis-sion to trade, and had 
a house in which to store his goods, he re-ceiv-ed 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 105 

word that a whole band of Chip-pe-was had come to 
make him a visit. He sent for an In-di-an in-ter- 
pret-er, as he had heard the Chip-pe-was would never 
allow an English trader to stay in their country. 

One day, about two o'clock in the af-ter-noon, 
sixty Chip-pe-was, headed by their Chief, walked 
single file into his house, each with his scalping- 
knife in one hand, and tom-a-hawk in the other. 
Most of them had on deer-skin pant-a-loons. Their 
breasts and arms were naked, but painted with a sort 
of white clay, in many patterns. Their faces, in 
strange contrast to their bodies, were be-smear-ed 
with black grease, and looked very much like a well- 
brushed boot. 

Some had wild turkies feathers stuck through 
the grisde of the nose, while the heads of others, 
were a-dorn-ed with crowns of the same. 

At a signal from the Chief, all seated themselves 
upon the floor, and began to smoke their pipes. 
Then the Chief, who was about fifty years old, and 
over six feet high, asked Mr. Henry, ''how long it 
had been since he left Mon-tre-al?" Being told, he 
calmly said: ''The English, it seems, are not afraid 
of death, since they have dared to come among their 
en-e-mies." 

When their to-bac-co had been smoked, the Chief, 
after a long silence, arose and took a few strinsfs of 



Jo6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

wampum in his hand, and begun a speech. He said: 
'* Their father, the King of France, was old and weak, 
and being tired with the war the Enghsh had made 
upon him, had fallen asleep ; but, when he awoke, he 
would be able to destroy ev-er-y Eng-lish-man in 
Can-a-da. If the English had driven out the French, 
they had not yet driven out the In-di-ans. They 
were not slaves! These lakes and woods and mount- 
ains were left them by their fathers, and they would 
part with none of them! These were the sources 
from which they were sup-pli-ed with food and cloth- 
ing." Then, seeing his braves were be-com-ing ex- 
ci-ted, he ad-dress-ed Mr. Henry di-rect-ly, saying: 
"But, as you come in peace, we shall not treat you 
as an en-e-my, and in token of our friendship, now 
offer you this pipe to smoke with us." Mr. Henry 
took the pipe, drew three whifs, passed it to the 
Chief who did the same, after which, all in the room 
re-peat-ed the cer-e-mo-ny. Mr. Henry then made 
a speech, and prom-is-ed to abide by their wishes, 
and to give them at parting, a cask of ''English 
milk" (rum). 

Mr. Henry now thought ev-er-y-thing settled, 
and hired men to take his goods to the In-di-an vil- 
la-ges along the shore of the lakes. Just before they 
were ready to start, how-ev-er, news came that the 
Ot-ta-was, an-oth-er tribe, were ap-proach-ing, two 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 107 

hundred strong. They en-ter-ed the stockade, and 
sent an in-ter-pret-er to command Mr. Henry's im-me- 
di-ate presence. Without delay the trader an-swer-ed 
the request. The Chief then told him, unless he 
gave to each of his braves, young and old, goods and 
am-mu-ni-tion to the amount of fifty beaver skins, 07t 
credit, his men would not be al-low-ed to visit the 
In-di-an vil-la-ges on the lakes and the Mis-sis-sip-pi. 
They gave Mr. Henry a day to con-sid-er the pro- 
pos-al. At the end of this time, he had con-clud-ed 
he had not enough goods to go round, and so told 
the Chief. 

He now ex-pect-ed to lose ev-er-y-thing ; but late 
in the af-ter-noon, to his great joy, he heard that a 
com-pa-ny of British soldiers were coming to protect 
the post, and were then but five miles away. The 
night was spent by him, how-ev-er, in hourly ex- 
pec-ta-tion of an attack ; but when morning dawned, 
the Ot-ta-was had left, and the English soldiers had 
ar-riv-ed. Then he sent his traders on their routes. 
After the troops had been some time in the fort, 
about a year, and had become used to frontier life, 
an old In-di-an named Wa-wa-tam, came to Mr. 
Henry's store, bringing him a present of dried ven-i- 
son, maple-sugar, and some beaver-skins. He said 
*'he had wished to adopt an Eng-lish-man ; that in 
a dream the Great Spirit had pointed out him — Mn 



io8 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Henry — as the best brother he could take. Would he 
receive his presents, and become one of his fam-i-ly?" 
Mr. Henry could not refuse, and so they smoked 
the pipe of re-la-tion-ship to-geth-er. While they 
smoked, Wa-wa-tam asked ''whether the com-man- 
dant at the fort had heard any bad news; and why 
four hundred Chip-pe-was and Sacks were en-camp- 
ed so near the fort?" adding, "that for a long time, 
his sleep had been dis-turb-ed by the noise of evil 
winds." He tried to persuade Mr. Henry to go with 
him that very day, up to Sault St. Marie; but the 
trader waited for the return of his hunters from the 
lakes, and was not able to leave. The In-di-an and 
his wife, not wishing to tell the secret they held in 
their hearts, de-part-ed in sadness. The next day 
was the King of England's birthday — the 4th of 
June. The morning was hot, and the In-di-ans were 
going to play a game of bog-gat-ta-way ; a game 
played with a bat and ball, sim-i-lar to those used in 
the game of polo. It is a very ex-cit-ing sport, and 
sometimes six or seven hundred are en-gag-ed in the 
game at once, that is, If the space is large enough. 
The posts of the con-test-ants are driven down, 
some-times miles apart, and the ball must be driven 
from home all the time. They run and yell and fall 
over each other in the chase for it, hundreds at a 
time. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, log 

On the day of the 4th, when the sport was at Its 
height and the noise deaf-en-ing, and the of-fi-cers 
and soldiers were standing outside the gate, un-arm- 
ed, watching the players, the ball was thrown over 
the stockade. While the of-fi-cers had re-main-ed 
without the in-clo-sure, a number of squaws had 
slipped in, car-ry-ing knives and tom-a-hawks under 
their blankets. As the ball landed, not far from 
where Mr. Henry's house was, he looked out of the 
window and soon saw a hundred braves, rushing 
into the fort after it. In a moment the war-whoop 
re-sound-ed in the ears of the E nglish of-fi-cers. The 
squaws passed to each brave a scalping-knife or 
tom-a-hawk ; both being used in their pit-i-less work. 
Here and there Henry could see the en-ra-ged sav-a- 
ges scooping up the blood of his coun-try-men, and 
drinking it to quench their hor-ri-ble thirst. He 
could bear the sight no longer, and, jumping a fence 
between his house and that of a Frenchman named 
Langlade, he ran into the presence of the fam-i-ly, 
and begged Mr. Langlade to secrete him. A Paw- 
nee woman, a slave of the Langlade's, beck-on-ed the 
trader to follow her, and o-pen-ing a door which led 
to the garret, they ran up, the woman re-turn-ing 
soon after, with the key of the door in her pocket. 
But a short time had e-laps-ed, when sev-er-al In-di- 
ans ap-pear-ed, and in-quir-ed *'if any Eng-lish-men 



no HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

were in the house.'* Mr. Langlade re-pH-ed, ''that 
he could not say; they must see for themselves." 
They began searching the house, and when they 
came to the garret door, found it locked. While one 
of their number went for the key, Mr. Henry saw 
some rolls of birch-bark in a heap in the dark corner. 
Into one of these he crawled, and when the In-di-ans 
were able to open the door, no one was to be found 
in the garret. Dis-ap-point-ed at not having his scalp 
to show as a trophy to the other blood-thirsty mur- 
der-ers at the fort, they de-scend-ed the stairs in an 
ugly mood. There was a feather-bed in the attic, 
and the poor, tired, and ter-ri-fi-ed man now threw 
himself upon it, and tried to rest. 

At night it began to rain, and the wife of Mr. 
Langlade went to the garret to stop a hole in the 
roof. She was sur-pris-ed to find Mr. Henry there. 
She told him sev-en-ty of the English gar-ri-son and 
in-hab-it-ants had been killed, and twenty were still 
alive. He asked her for some water, which she 
brought him, and when the door was again locked, 
he fell asleep for the last time for many hours. 

The next morning voices were heard below again 
asking for the "English trader, Henry." Mr. Henry 
now ex-pect-ed to die, and re-sign-ed to his fate, sat 
qui-et-ly on his bed waiting their approach. Up the 
sav-a-ges came, all nearly naked, and brand-ish-ing 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. m 

their scalping-knives above their heads. Upon see- 
ing the object of their search, one In-di-an caught 
him by the collar of his coat, and looking him stead- 
i-ly in the face for a moment, at last dropped his arm 
and said: "I won't kill you." Then or-der-ing him 
to go down stairs, they made him take off his clothes, 
telling him if he did not wish to go to the fort naked, 
he could put on the cast-off garments of his robber 
In-di-an. Meeting a young Chip-pe-wa on the way, 
who owed him for goods, the drunken savage cried 
out, 'T will pay you before long." When the fort 
was reached, his tor-ment-ors did not enter, but 
pressed him on to the woods. Mr. Henry re-fus-ed 
to go further, saying he thought they were going to 
murder him. At this, an In-di-an seized his arm, 
and was about to plunge his knife into Mr. Henry's 
breast, when he gave a sudden turn and re-leas-ed 
himself Running with all his might he reached 
Mr. Langlade's house again, fol-low-ed by the leap- 
ing and howling savage. The Can-a-di-an was suc- 
cess-ful in per-suad-ing the In-di-an to allow Mr. 
Henry to remain with him for the night, and en-ter- 
ing his garret he hoped to pass the night in safety. 
At ten o'clock he was called down, but to his great 
joy, there stood Major Eth-er-ing, Mr. Bostwick, 
Lieu-ten-ant Leslie, of-fi-cers of the fort, whose lives 
had been spared, but who were held as pris-on-ers. 



112 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

All re-main-ed quiet for the night, but the next 
morning they were or-der-ed to embark in a canoe 
manned by seven In-di-ans. With ropes about their 
necks, and tied to a bar fas-ten-ed to the canoe, the 
only clothing upon their persons a thin shirt, they 
were rowed, in the cool morning air, sev-en-teen 
miles, landing at Fox Point, Lake Mich-i-gan. 

At the sound of the war-whoop, an Ot-ta-wa ap- 
pear-ed upon the beach, and sig-nal-ed them to land. 
Before the boat could reach the shore, a band of Ot- 
ta-was ran through the shallow water, seized the pris- 
on-ers and dragged them on shore. Now, they ex- 
pect-ed death in-stant-ly, and Mr. Henry pre-par-ed 
for the third time to leave the world. After some 
delay, and par-ley-ing, the pris-on-ers learned, to their 
great joy, that they were in the hands of friends; 
that the Ot-ta-was were of-fend-ed at the Chip-pe-was, 
because they had made the attack on the fort with- 
out con-sult-ing them. 

The English were car-ri-ed back to the fort, the 
Chip-pe-was driven out, and the Ot-ta-was put in 
command. 

After a night of council between the two tribes, 
the pris-on-ers again found themselves at the mercy 
of their old captors. 

On the 7th of June, Mr. Henry's old friend, 
Wa-wa-tam, en-ter-ed the lodcfe where he w^ con- 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 113 

fin-ed, and, in passing, gave him his hand. A coun- 
cil was to be held. When the Chief ap-pear-ed, 
Wa-wa-tam took a seat by him, and both smoked 
without ut-ter-ing a word. This done he left the 
lodge, and passing near Mr. Henry, said, ** cheer 
up." Soon after, the old In-di-an re-turn-ed with 
his wife, both loaded down with goods, which they 
laid at the feet of the Chief. Then Wa-wa-tam said : 
''All of you have friends, brothers and children. 
How would you feel to see them slaves? this is my 
case, as you all know. I a-dopt-ed him long before 
the war begun, and how can you break the cord that 
binds us to-geth-er? I bring these goods to buy 
off ev-er-y claim which any may have against my 
brother." The Chief re-pli-ed, ''that he knew all; 
and for his trust-i-ness in not be-tray-ing them before 
the mas-sa-cre, he would take the goods and release 
his brother," which was done upon the spot. 

Wa-wa-tam took Mr. Henry home with him. 
He was safe; but his coun-try-men, what became of 
them ? 

Shortly after he heard a noise in the prison lodge, 
and going to the spot, he saw seven bodies dragged 
out, these having been killed by a chief who had been 
away during the mas-sa-cre, but who wished to show 
his loy-al-ty to the cause, by dipping his hands in the 
blood of the hated English. 



//^ HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Mr. Henry was com-pell-ed to disguise himself 
as an In-di-an for a whole year, when a council being 
called to meet at Mon-tre-al, he begged to ac-com- 
pa-ny the tribe, which request was at last agreed to. 

I think my young readers will say this man's 
escape was almost mi-rac-u-lous. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PON-TI-AC'S ATTACK ON DETROIT. 

On the af-ter-noon of the day before the attack 
on Fort Pont-char-train, at Detroit, was to be made, 
an In-di-an girl — whom, it was said, the com-man- 
dant. Major Gladwyn, thought much of, and who, 
you will doubtless say when you have heard her 
story, thought much of the com-man-dant — came 
to the fort to present the Major with a pair of pretty 
em-broid-er-ed slippers. The Major called her 
Cath-a-rine. But this was only a fine excuse 
which Cath-a-rine made for going to the fort, at a 
time when her errand might be sus-pect-ed. As she 
en-ter-ed the room of the com-man-dant, her dark 
eyes were cast down, and her pretty face shad-dow-ed 
with sadness. 

Major Gladwyn called her to his side, and in- 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



^^5 



quir-ed the cause of her gloom. Cath-a-rine did not 
hke to betray her own people, and for some time re- 
main-ed silent. The Major pressed her again to 
confide in him the cause of her sorrow. At length, 
in a shy and half-fright-en-ed manner, Cath-a-rine 
said: *'To-mor-row, Pon-ti-ac will come to the fort 
with sixty Chiefs. They will seem friendly; they will 
wish to hold a council with you. But, take care! 
they are your 

As 



en-e-mies. 
they march into 
the fort, watch 
them. They 
will all be arm- 
ed with guns 
cut short, and 
hidden under 
their blankets. 
Pon-ti-ac will 
ask to talk with 
you, and after he has talked, he will offer a belt of 
wampum to be at peace with you ; but he will not 
hand it to you in the right way. When the braves 
see this, they will spring up, and fire upon you and 
your of-fi-cers, and the In-di-ans outside the fort will 
rush in and kill ev-er-y Eng-lish-man here; but the 
scalp of a Frenchman will not be touched." 




CATH-A-RINE RE-VEAL-ING THE CON-SPIR-A-CY OF 

PON-TI-AC. 



ii6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

When the Major heard this, he pressed the hand 
of Cath-a-rine with thank-ful-ness, and told her to go 
back to the In-di-an village, not far off, in order that 
no one should suspect her. 

The fort was put in r \ad-i-ness ; the men well 
armed, and sev-er-al were de-tail-ed for special duty 
at Major Gladwyn's side. 

When Pon-ti-ac knocked the next day, in com- 
pany with his Chiefs, he was shown into the presence 
of the com-man-dant, who looked at him sternly, and 
waited his approach. Pon-ti-ac saw he had been 
dis-cov-er-ed, but was so much master of himself 
that he re-main-ed per-fect-ly calm, and in-quir-ed : 

"Why do I see so many of my father's young 
men standing about with their guns?" 

Major Glad wyn re-pli-ed as calmly: **The sol- 
diers are under arms for ex-er-cise and dis-ci-pline." 

Then Pon-ti-ac and his braves seated themselves 
upon the mats, and begun to smoke. Hold-ing the 
wampum belt in his hand, the Chief began to make 
a speech, in which he pro-fess-ed great friendship for 
the English ; but, when upon the point of raising the 
belt, as Cath-a-rine had said he would, the Major 
quickly passed his hand across his forehead ^ — the 
signal agreed upon with his men — then the sudden 
clashing of arms was heard throughout the fort. 
Drums were beaten, and a squad of soldiers marched 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. irj 

into the au-di-ence room of the Major, and took po-si- 
tion behind him. 

Pon-ti-ac was con-found-ed. His sus-pi-cions 
were re-al-iz-ed. Major Gladwyn had been made 
aware of his in-tend-ed attack. But he would put 
on the best face pos-si-ble, present the belt, and lis- 
ten to what the com-man-dant had to say. 

Gladwyn re-ceiv-ed the gift, his eyes fixed sternly 
upon the Chief. After a short pause, in which both 
ap-pear-ed un-mov-ed, the Major said: "As long as 
you and your fol-low-ers deserve it, you will receive 
the friendship of the English, and will be ben-e-fit-ed 
thereby ; but, upon the first ag-gress-ive act, you will 
be vis-it-ed by the direst vengeance our armies can 
bring upon you." 

The gates were there-up-on o-pen-ed, and the In- 
di-ans qui-et-ly passed out. When, at some distance 
from the fort, Pon-ti-ac re-la-ted to the as-sem-bled 
tribes what had hap-pen-ed. They yelled and danced 
about with rage. They had failed in taking the fort as 
they had ex-pect-ed to do. But Pon-ti-ac fa-vor-ed 
the ap-pear-ance of con-tin-u-ed friendship with the 
English. He would go the next day and en-deav-or 
to find out just how much Major Gladwyn knew. 

In com-pa-ny with three Chiefs he ap-pear-ed at 
the gate of the fort, and de-mand-ed to see the of-fi- 
cer, at the same time raising in his hand the sacred 



ii8 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

cal-u-met. They were ad-m it-ted, and as Pon-ti-ac 
pre-sent-ed the pipe, he said : 

*'My father! evil birds have sung Hes in your 
ears. We, that stand before you, are the true friends 
of the EngHsh. We love you as our brothers, and 
to prove our love we have come this day to smoke 
with you the pipe of peace." 

When the smoking was over, Pon-ti-ac left the 
pipe as a pledge of his sin-cer-i-ty. The next day 
great numbers of In-di-ans were no-tic-ed gath-er- 
ing around the fort, and when Pon-ti-ac came there 
again he found it closed against him. In a tow-er- 
ing rage he strode back to his braves, who lay upon 
their bellies just outside the reach of the fort's guns. 
Seeing the di-a-bol-ic-al look of Pon-ti-ac they leaped 
to their feet, and running to a house owned by an 
English woman, they burst in the door, and in- 
stant-ly mur-der-ed all its inmates. Then a band ran 
to the river, sprang into their canoes, and paddling 
to an island near Detroit, on which stood a house 
also owned by an English subject, dragged the man 
from his hiding place and killed him on the spot. 

Pon-ti-ac was not a mur-der-er. He wished to 
be con-sid-er-ed a soldier, and taking a canoe he 
crossed the river to an Ot-ta-wa village, and or-der-ed 
the tribe to cross the river to aid in the attack to be 
made at an early day on the fort. Ev-er-y man in 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. iig 

the fort was now put under arms. All night the 
little gar-ri-son waited for the attack. Nothing oc- 
cur-red, how-ev-er, until daylight, when the war- 
whoop sounded, and the bullets of the sav-a-ges be- 
gan to knock against the wooden in-clos-ure. The 
In-di-ans were se-cre-ted behind a clump of out-build- 
ings, at which one of the guns of the fort was pointed. 
The red-hot spikes shot from the cannon soon set fire 
to these, and the In-di-ans took to the woods. The 
assault lasted six hours. Five of the English were 
wounded, but not many In-di-ans were hurt. 

After a time the com-man-dant saw he would 
soon need pro-vis-ions, and sent two Frenchmen, 
named Chap-e-ton and Godefroy, to find out what 
Pon-ti-ac wished. Major Gladwyn not knowing about 
the up-ris-ing of all the I n-di-ans under Pon-ti-ac. 

Pon-ti-ac re-ceiv-ed the two men kindly, where- 
up-on Chap-e-ton urged him to raise the siege. 

'* If Major Campbell will come to my camp," said 
the Chief, ''we will smoke the pipe of peace to-geth-er, 
and settle ev-er-y-thing." 

Major Gladwyn, when he heard Pon-ti-ac's re- 
quest, was afraid all would not be well with Major 
Campbell, should he accept Pon-ti-ac's pro-pos-al. 
But Campbell in-sist-ed upon going, hoping thereby 
to prevent further bloodshed. Lieu-ten-ant McDou- 
gal, and sev-er-al others, ac-com-pa-ni-ed the Major. 



120 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



Ar-riv-ed at the camp all were seated, when Pon- 
ti-ac of-fer-ed a speech, which, how-ev-er, con-vey-ed 
nothing of im-port-ance to the vis-it-ors. Major 
Campbell re-pli-ed to him. For a whole hour they 

waited for 
Pon-ti-ac to 
answer. Dur- 
ing this time 
the sav-a-ges 
were throng- 
ing about the 
lodge in great 
numbers. At 
length Major 
Campbell re- 
marked that 
**it was time 
for him and 
his friends to 
return to the 
fort." 

Pon-ti-ac 
merely mov- 
ed his hand, 
and said, pointing to Campbell: '*My father will 
sleep to-night in the lodge of his red children." 

Pon-ti-ac in-tend-ed to keep him pris-on-er; and, 




THE OLD RED MILL. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 121 

at the right time, offer him his Hb-er-ty for the sur- 
ren-der of the fort. 

One day when the Major was al-low-ed to walk 
about the camp, he was fired upon by an am-bush-ed 
In-di-an and killed. Pon-ti-ac was fu-ri-ous at this 
fiendish act, and de-clar-ed torture for the war-ri-or, 
if caught. 

In con-nec-tion with the death of Major Camp- 
bell, a story is told by Mrs. Hamlin, in her ''Legends 
of Detroit." It is this: ''At the time of Col-on-el 
Rogers' capture of Detroit, there lived in an old 
stone mill, a Can-a-di-an fam-i-ly, who had a-dopt-ed 
an In-di-an girl of Pon-ti-ac's tribe. She was pretty, 
and warmly ad-mir-ed by Major Campbell. When- 
ev-er the Major wished to see her, and she wished to 
see him, and there were none of the jealous Ot-ta-wa 
braves about, the In-di-an girl would place a lighted 
candle in a window of the mill. This light twink- 
ling across the water could be seen at the fort, and 
the Major would hasten to obey its summons. 

"This pretty In-di-an girl, had long been loved by 
Wasson, a Sag-i-naw brave. He had brought to her 
the finest beaver-skins he could find ; beads, shells, 
and gay feathers, but she raised not one of these 
presents from the ground, where they had been 
thrown at her feet. En-ra-ged at this coldness, Was- 
son began to inquire the reason. Dis-cov-er-ing it, 



122 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

he de-ter-min-ed to be re-veng-ed ; seeing the candle 
at the window one night, he hur-ri-ed to the spot. 
Finding her alone, he up-braid-ed her for de-sert-ing 
her race, and loving a white man; and, raising his 
tom-a-hawk, in a moment bur-i-ed it in her brain. 

''Soon splashingoars were heard, and the panting 
lover was at the door. Wasson stood with up-rais-ed 
arm to strike him to the ground, when footsteps were 
heard along the pathway. The fam-i-ly had re- 
turn-ed. Both men made their escape; the In-di-an 
maiden was ten-der-ly laid in her early grave by her 
foster parents. But Wasson had only half done his 
work. He lay in wait for Major Campbell, and, 
when Pon-ti-ac kept him as a hostage, the brave 
found his op-por-tun-i-ty. He mur-der-ed the Eng- 
lish-man, and was thus sat-is-fi-ed. " 

No one would live in the mill after that, and 
strange stories were told of a dark maiden, who was 
often seen on misty nights, standmg at the window 
with a lighted candle in her hand. 

On the 30th of May, the people in the fort found 
themselves almost out of pro-vis-ions, and great was 
their joy when the news came, that twenty-two bat- 
teaux, laden with guns and stores, and car-ry-ing a 
company of troops, were in sight. These boats were 
cap-tur-ed by Pon-ti-ac's forces in the Detroit River, 
the stores taken, and ev-er-y soldier put to death. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 123 

For sixty days and nights the httle gar-ri-son was 
on duty, sleeping in their clothes, with guns in hand 
to be ready at a moment's warning. 

On the 29th of July, an-oth-er fleet of boats ap- 
pear-ed with three hundred reg-u-lars, under com- 
mand of Captain Dalzell. On landing, Dalzell 
wished to attack Pon-ti-ac's forces im-me-di-ate-ly ; 
but Major Gladwyn hes-i-ta-ted, well-knowing the 
sol-dier-ly tactics of Pon-ti-ac, and the ad-vant-age 
the In-di-ans had over the gar-ri-son in thor-ough-ly 
knowing the country; but Dalzell in-sist-ing, the 
com-man-dant fi-nal-ly con-sent-ed. 

Pon-ti-ac, by some mys-te-ri-ous means, had heard 
of the pro-pos-ed attack, and placing his men behmd 
the bluffs o-ver-look-ing the river road — the only road 
the British forces could take to reach him — he pa- 
tient-ly a-wait-ed the attack. At two o'clock on the 
morning of July 3 ist, 1763, Captain Dalzell, with two 
hundred and fifty men, of the Fifty-fifth and E ight-i-eth 
Reg-u-lars, marched out of the fort, and took the 
road leading to Pon-ti-ac's camp, on Parent Creek, 
about two and a-half miles distant from the fort. 

The night was very dark and hot. Lieu-ten-ant 
Brown had been sent forward with twenty-five men. 
Meeting an am-bush-ed force of Pon-ti-ac's braves, 
at the bridge crossing the creek, half of Brown's 
skirmish-line fell dead, pierced with arrows, or killed 



124 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



with bullets from some of the armed In-di-ans. Cap- 
tain Dalzell hearing the firing, hur-ri-ed to the front; 
but Pon-ti-ac and all his savage army had dis-ap- 
pear-ed. 

In the darkness the English could not pursue 
the In-di-ans, and were forced to retreat. Their re- 
treat had been ex-pect-ed 
by Pon-ti-ac when he 
placed a line of his men 
along the bluffs. The 

I-TE'lJ^^''''i"S^T^^'^^''^^ English were al-low-ed to 

^SPM^'fll^^ P^^^ along the road a 

if^««wm]i] I llTT^ife^T^;! shoj-t distance, when they 

were fired upon ; some 
killed, and more wound- 
ed. The re-main-ing 
troops slowly re-treat-ed, keeping the sav-a-ges at a 
distance until near the house of M. Campeau, when 
Major Rogers, hur-ry-ing from the fort with fresh 
troops, took pos-ses-sion, keeping the In-di-ans at bay 
until the main body reached the fort. 

It was eight o'clock in the morning, when the 
dis-heart-en-ed English again en-ter-ed the gates of 
Fort Pont-char-train. They had lost two of-fi-cers — 
Captains Dalzell and Gray — seventy men killed and 
forty wounded. Thus ended the fiercely con-test-ed 
battle of what is now called '' Bloody Run." - 




OLD CAMPEAU HOUSE. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 125 

The siege of the fort con-tin-u-ed for six months, 
and it was only when Pon-ti-ac learned that a treaty 
of peace had re-al-ly been signed by the French 
King, Louis XV., and the King of England, George 
III., that the be-sieg-ers began to dis-ap-pear. 

Pon-ti-ac sought refuge among the Miamis. 
He tried to persuade the French of New Orleans 
to assist him in con-tin-u-ing hos-til-i-ties against the 
English, but failed. He was shot near St. Louis, in 
1769, by an In-di-an of the Il-li-nois tribe, for a bar- 
rel of whisky. 

Of the thirteen forts Pon-ti-ac had planned to 
take, only three es-cap-ed — Fort Pont-char-train, at 
Detroit, Forts Ni-ag-a-ra and Du Quesne. 

An old white-wood tree, known at Detroit as the 
'' Pon-ti-ac Tree," still stands to com-mem-o-rate the 
death of Captain Dalzell and his band of fallen heroes, 
at the battle of ''Bloody Run." 



CHAPTER XVL 

MICH-I-GAN UNDER BRITISH RULE. 

At the time of the English oc-cu-pa-tion of what 
is now Mich-i-gan, aside from the trading-posts of 
Detroit, Mack-i-naw, St. Joseph's and the Missions, 



126 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

the country was little less than a dense wil-der-ness. 
The troops of the gar-ri-sons, after Pon-ti-ac's at- 
tempt to destroy them, were in-creas-ed somewhat — 
that of Detroit re-ceiv-ing two hundred fresh men, 
under command of Gen-er-al Bradstreet, later, better 
known to the A-mer-i-can col-o-nists. The English 
now began to re-al-ize the power the In-di-ans had 
for harming their fur-trading in-ter-ests, and in-vi-ted 
them to a council, at which they were of-fer-ed 
patches of gov-ern-ment land about the forts to settle 
on, and urged to adopt the ways of pleas-ant-ness 
and peace. 

Little change was made in the laws gov-ern-ing 
the French settlers ; they were not made to feel un- 
com-fort-a-ble ; they could worship God, earn their 
living, and enjoy themselves just the same as they 
had done under the rule of the French King; but 
they were not all sat-is-fi-ed. Their love for their 
old country. La Belle France, was still strong, and 
many of them could not like the English com-man- 
dants quite as well as they had liked their own. 

About this time, sev-er-al of the merchants who 
had been in the fur-trade, formed a com-pa-ny and 
called it the '' Northwest Fur Com-pa-ny." Some 
of the share-hold-ers were made agents to bring goods 
from England, store them in Mon-tre-al, and af-ter- 
ward send to each post what was needed to buy furs 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 7^7 

from the In-di-ans, and supply the men in their em- 
ploy. There was an-oth-er com-pa-ny called **The 
Hudson Bay Fur Com-pa-ny," char-ter-ed in 1669, 
by Charles II. of England. After the English took 
Can-a-da, their op-e-ra-tions were not so cir-cum- 
scrib-ed. The men of both com-pa-nies were ruf-fi- 
an-ly fellows, who did much to corrupt the In-di-ans, 
making them first drunkards, and then robbing them 
of their furs. They were always fighting each other, 
because neither of the com-pa-nies could tell just 
where their grants begun or ended, and it was 
clairned each was con-stant-ly en-croach-ing upon the 
ter-ri-to-ry of the other. 

NIatters fi-nal-ly came to such a pass, that Lord 
Selkirk, at the head of the Hudson Bay Com-pa-ny, 
brought about a union of the two, which ended the 
fur-trader's war. 

An-oth-er com-pa-ny was formed after the Rev-o- 
lu-tion, called the '*A-mer-i-can Fur Com-pa-ny." 
John Jacob Astor was at the head of this, and Mack- 
i-naw was one of their prin-ci-pal col-lect-ing stations. 

To show you what havoc these com-pa-nies made 
of the wild an-i-mals of the northwest, it is re-port-ed 
that in the year 1774, the "Northwestern" sold 
1 82,250 skins. Of this number 106,000 were beaver. 
If one com-pa-ny killed so many, what could have 
been the number shot by the two others, and va-ri-ous 



128 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



private persons? ** And what," you ask, ''was done 

with all this fur?" 

Well, we are told, that the great armies which 

left Europe to take the Holy Land from the Turks, 

between 1095 and 
1272, wore caps 
made of cat-skins. 
Somewhere in the 
East these Cru- 
sa-ders learned 
the art of felting, 
and when they re- 
turn-ed home they 
made wool hats 
by this process. 
These hats, after 
a little use in the 
sun and rain, 
looked much the 
worse for wear. 
And so a felt-hat- 
ter thought of 
usins: fur instead 

of wool. It was a happy idea for him, but one not 

so happy for the poor an-i-mals of the northwest. 

These fur hats kept their shape and color better, 

and, of course, cost three or four times as much as 




JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



I2g 



the wool ones, so that only the rich could buy them. 
The workmen who wanted to work all the time,' 
thought if fur could be found in a-bun-dance some- 
where, these hats could be made cheaper, and more 




THE TRAPPER. 



people could have them. This was one of the ob- 
jects set forth by Champlain in his efforts to equip 
ships for traffic with the In-di-ans. The hatters of 
™^e wanted ipore work, and the people cheaper 

When you think that ev-er-y man, almost, in the 
two tem-per-ate zones, came to wear a hat made of 



ISO HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

some sort of fur, you can have an idea of what was 
done with all the fur taken from A-mer-i-ca to 
Europe. Vast fortunes were made in this in-dus-try. 
You have all heard of John Jacob Astor's wealth. 
He was a poor German boy, who came to New York 
when about nineteen years old. In the ship coming 
across the At-lan-tic was a man who was a fur-buy- 
er, or hunter, who became friendly with the young 
em-i-grant, and told him all about the money that 
could be made in the fur bus-i-ness. As soon as John 
Jacob landed, he found a man who wanted a fur- 
beater. He took the place, and all the money he 
earned he put away until he had enough to become 
a fur-dealer himself. After a while he mar-ri-ed a 
ca-pa-ble woman, who became in time very expert in 
the se-lec-tion of furs. In a few years Mr. Astor 
had ships on all the seas, car-ry-ing his wares and 
brino-incT the mer-chan-dise of foreiorn countries to his 
stores in A-mer-i-ca. He died worth sev-er-al mill- 
ion, and is said to have made the remark, **that had 
the col-o-ny he es-tab-lish-ed at As-to-ri-a, suc-ceed- 
ed, he would have been the richest man in the whole 
world.'* 

Im-mi-era-tion to Mich-i-ran was not en-cour- 
aged while these fur com-pa-nies held pos-ses-sion of 
the northwest. They wished to keep the forests as 
they were that their trade might not be in-jur-ed. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ijr 

All sorts of stories were told about the country; **the 
climate was un-health-y, the soil un-pro-duc-tive, and 
life very unsafe, owing to the un-friend-li-ness of the 
sav-a-ges, and the great number of wild beasts." 
Ev-er-y-bod-y dealt in beaver skins; ev-er-y-bod-y was 
in some way con-nect-ed with the fur trade. 

In 1773, an attempt was made to mine the silver 
and copper ore of the south shore of Lake Su-pe-ri-or. 
A large piece of silver ore, found near Mack-i-naw, 
had been car-ri-ed to England and placed in the 
British Mu-se-um. 

With the ex-pec-ta-tion of making a great deal of 
money, the Duke of Glou-ces-ter joined a com-pa-ny, 
bought a sloop, and sent miners to take out the ore; 
but the venture could not be made prof-it-a-ble then, 
owing to the lack of nec-es-sa-ry ma-chin-er-y, and 
so the miners went back to their beaver-hunting 
again. 

The British, while in pos-ses-sion of Mich-i-gan, 
built new barracks, and greatly im-prov-ed the tra- 
ding-posts; but they were very strict in their dis-ci- 
pline. As an il-lus-tra-tion : When Sir William 
Ham-il-ton was com-mand-ing at Detroit, in 1774, a 
man had been caught stealing some beaver-skins from 
a fur dealer. A female slave had also stolen a purse 
with a small sum of money in it. They were both 
tried, found guilty, and sen-tenc-ed to be ''hanged, 



132 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

hanged, hanged and strangled until they be dead, on 
the Kuig's domain," and the sentence was car-ri-ed out. 
It would seem from this, that a very great value 
was put upon a beaver-skin in those days — more 
value than upon human life. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

MICH-I-GAN IN THE REV-O-LU-TION-A-RY WAR. 

When the thirteen col-o-nies of A-mer-i-ca, in 
1776, de-clar-ed their in-de-pend-ence of Great Britain, 
Mich-i-gan was too far away from the seat of war for 
her people to take an active part, had they been so 
dis-pos-ed, and I doubt if there were very many 
Yankee rebels then, at any of her forts. The fur- 
traders and soldiers were all in sym-pa-thy with the 
English. As the French — so the English claimed — 
had urged the In-di-ans to attack them, when Can-a- 
da fell into their hands, so the English now formed 
al-li-an-ces with the In-di-ans to attack the col-o-nists. 

The In-di-ans were as-sem-bled at Detroit and 
Mack-i-naw, given arms, and told to go, burn and 
destroy the prop-er-ty of all dis-loy-al subjects on the 
frontiers of New York, Penn-syl-va-ni-a and Vir- 
gin-i-a. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ijj 

It is said by some his-to-ri-ans, that the EngHsh 
paid a good price for ev-er-y ''Yankee" scalp that 
was brought to the forts. At one council, an In-di-an 
is known to have handed the British com-man-dant 
a stick four feet long, strung with col-o-nists' scalps, 
at the same time saying: 

"Now, father, here is what has been done with 
the hatchet you gave me. I have made the use of 
it you told me to make. Yes, and I found it sharp 
enough, too." 

When the war closed, in 1783, a treaty was 
signed by the King of England and the of-fi-cers of 
the New Re-pub-lic, which pro-vid-ed that in 1796, 
all the forts in the northwest should be va-ca-ted by 
the English. But, before the time had e-laps-ed, the 
people of the new States began to talk about going 
to the Great Northwest to settle, and the soldiers of 
the Rev-o-lu-tion-a-ry War thought they ought to 
have some of the land to pay them for their ser-vi- 
ces to the Re-pub-lic. The country northwest of 
O-hi-o was then made into a ter-ri-to-ry, and Arthur 
St. Clair ap-point-ed as Gov-ern-or. 

A few years before the time for the English to 
give up the forts in Mich-i-gan, it began to be said 
they did not intend to keep their promise. Baron 
von Steuben was sent by Wash-ing-ton to Quebec, 
to arrange for the change ; but he was told they would 



JJ4 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

not be given up, and that certain debts due to Eng- 
lish-men from A-mer-i-cans, had not been paid as 
agreed upon. 

About this time, the In-di-ans, en-cour-aged by 
the British, formed themselves into a con-fed-er-a-cy, 
and de-clar-ed they would never allow the A-mer-i- 
cans to oc-cu-py the land of the Great Northwest. 

The English had made them believe the A-mer-i- 

<_> 

cans were about to steal from them ev-er-y foot of 
land they owned. When a large farm had been sold 
to a settler, the In-di-ans claimed they were drunk 
when they signed the deed, and asked it back. 

About this time, the English had trouble in get- 
ting sailors to man her ships. She would not pay 
as hieh wa^es as the A-mer-i-cans did, and when her 
ships en-ter-ed the At-lan-tic ports of Boston and 
New York, the sailors would often run away, and 
hire out in A-mer-i-can ships. To get them back, 
the English would stop any vessel be-long-ing to an 
A-mer-i-can, and search it. This the captains and 
owners did not like, and asked the Gov-ern-ment to 
put a stop to it. So you see that although the col-o- 
nists had gained their in-de-pend-ence, there was still 
all sorts of things done by England to annoy them. 
They hated to let them go, and thought, with the 
help of the In-di-ans and tories, to whip them back 
after a time. -: 




EARLY SETTLERS IN MICH-I-GAN. 



135 



136 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

The Col-o-ni-al Gov-ern-ment, at the close of its 
seven years' war for in-de-pend-ence, as you all know, 
found itself very poor. It had no money to pay the 
soldiers, and so gave them land warrants ; and after 
the soldiers had the warrants, they wanted then to 
settle on the frontier. Ac-cord-ing-ly, all that coun- 
try northwest of the O-hi-o River, was called the 
Northwest Ter-ri-to-ry, and the lands could be sold 
very cheap to settlers, as well as be used to pay the 
soldiers. The first Gov-ern-or ap-point-ed by the 
Col-o-ni-al Congress, for all this ter-ri-to-ry, was 
Gen-er-al Arthur St. Clair. In-di-an-a was carved 
out of this great tract of country in 1 800, and became 
a Ter-ri-to-ry. Mich-i-gan fol-low-ed in 1805. 

Thomas Jef-fer-son was Pres-i-dent at this time. 
He bought from France, while Na-po-leon was Em- 
per-or, an-oth-er large tract of country, ex-tend-ing 
from New Mex-i-co to British A-mer-i-ca, and from 
the Mis-sis-sip-pi River to the Rocky Mountains. 

So now the people of the new States could well 
say to the Old World, "Come over and settle with 
us. We have land enough for us, and will give you 
all a farm." Althoucrh Enoland had acrreed to our 
oc-cu-py-ing Mich-i-gan's forts and trading-posts m 
1796, when the time came, and Gen-er-al Wayne's 
troops en-ter-ed Detroit, and, for the first time, the 
stars and stripes floated from the flag-staff of the fort. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ijy 

the British soldiers were so angry at being com- 
pell-ed to leave, that they filled the gar-ri-son well 
with stones, broke all the windows of the barracks, 
locked the gates of the fort, and gave the keys to an 
old negro. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MICH-I-GAN IN THE WAR OF l8l2. 

The In-di-an Chief, Te-cum-seh, now tried to help 
the English to hold the northwest, as Pon-ti-ac had 
tried to help the French do the same thing, fifty 
years before. He formed an In-di-an con-fed-er-a-cy, 
or union, with all the tribes he could get to join him. 
Te-cum-seh was a Shawnee Chief. He had a 
brother who called himself a ''Prophet." He told 
the In-di-ans to give up ev-er-y kind of food and 
liquor the whites had taught them to use and drink. 
He called the chiefs of the nu-mer-ous tribes to- 
geth-er, and told them Te-cum-seh, their greatest 
friend, had sent him to tell them about a dream he 
had had. * Te-cum-seh had met the Great Spirit a 
short time before. The Great Spirit had told him 
in con-fi-dence, that He was the Father of the French, 
the English, the Spaniards, and the In-di-ans; but 



ijS 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



the A-mer-i-cans had had no maker. They were 
made of the scum of the great water while it was 
troubled by the Evil Spirt.' In order to brush away 
''this scum" from off the face of the earth, that it might 




CAPTURE OF A WHITE SETTLEr's WIFE. 



be peopled with their friends, Te-cum-seh had sent 
for the braves of ev-er-y tribe to join him in a war 
against this very common people. The whole ter- 
ri-to-ry of Mich-i-gan at this time — 1 809 — con-tain-ed 
only about five thousand in-hab-it-ants. 

In 181 1, Te-cum-seh's war-ri-ors were known to 
be ready for an attack upon the frontier towns. They 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ijg 

had built a blacksmith's shop upon the Kal-a-ma-zoo 
River, where hundreds of scalping-knives and hatch- 
ets had been made for the sav-a-ges. The children 
and squaws had raised corn enough during the sum- 
mer to last them on their marches. The forts of 
Detroit, Fort Wayne, Chi-ca-go, St. Louis and Vin- 
cenn-es, were those se-lect-ed by Te-cum-seh to be 
first at-tack-ed. 

The Gov-ern-ment being in-form-ed of Te-cum- 
seh's plans, sent twelve hundred troops into O-hi-o, 
which number was here in-creas-ed to sixteen hundred 
by vol-un-teers. Gen-er-al Har-ri-son was in charge of 
a Di-vi-sion at this time. While Te-cum-seh was in 
the South telling the Creek and Sem-i-nole In-di-ans 
that the English would aid them in driving the 
A-mer-i-cans from off the face of the earth, Gen-er-al 
Har-ri-son marched on the Prophet's village, and de- 
mand-ed the dis-per-sion of the In-di-ans to their own 
homes; that the mur-der-ers of white men be handed 
over to him, and all the plunder taken in their dep- 
re-da-tions upon the settlers be given up. This re- 
quest was not agreed to, and the Prophet at-tack-ed 
Gen-er-al Har-ri-son atTip-pe-ca-noe, on the Wabash 
River, No-vem-ber 7th, 181 1. 

It is said an In-di-an named "Lynx Eye," and 
a pretty squaw, car-ri-ed the first news to Gen-er-al 
Har-ri-son, at Vin-cenn-es, of the Prophet's plan to 



1^0 



HISTOR,Y OF MICHIGAN. 



attack him. During his Brother Te-cum-seh's ab- 
sence, the va-ri-ous bands, with the Prophet as com- 
mand-er, had as-sem-bled and en-camp-ed about four 
miles up the Tip-pe-ca-noe River, in In-di-an-a. 










■~- *;. f-v 







THE WAY THE TIP-PE-CA-NOE BATTLE-GROUND LOOKS TO DAY 



At the junction of the Wabash and Tip-pe-ca-noe, 
near where La-fay-ette now stands, Gen-er-al Har-ri- 
son qui-et-ly landed with a force of eight hundred 
men. Scouts were soon after sent out to dis-cov-er 
what the Prophet in-tend-ed to do. After killing a 
Shawnee sen-ti-nel, the scout got near enough to the 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i^r 

camp to hear the fol-low-ing con-ver-sa-tion between 
two ren-e-gade hunters: "The Gov'ner will get torch 
and knife to-mor-row night. The Prophet's afraid 
when Te-cum-seh comes back he won't fight, and the 
tribes are crazy to take ev-er-y white scalp on the 
border." When the scout came back and told Gen- 
er-al Har-ri-son what he had heard, the Gen-er-al 
hoped the attack would be made while Te-cum-seh 
was away, because he was sure then of winning a 
vic-to-ry. 

The white settlers were told of the expected at- 
tack. Har-ri-son's camp was for-ti-fi-ed. Col-o-nel 
Boyd had placed in front of each of the breast- 
works a pile of dry wood, wet with tur-pen-tine, the 
night of the ex-pect-ed attack. A little before dawn 
the camp was a-rous-ed by a line of In-di-ans coming 
through the woods, bearing blazing torches, march- 
ing to the music of a drum and their wild war-song. 

A friendly In-di-an, named Dead Shot, standing 
near Gen-er-al Har-ri-son at the time, said: ''That 
is not a true assault. They will attack from the 
water side." 

After waving their torches, and ending their mu- 
sic with a loud shout, ev-er-y light was sud-den-ly put 
out. Then Gen-er-al Har-ri-son or-der-ed the pile 
of dry wood kindled, when, by the blazing light, 
the whole woods seemed to be cov-er-ed with dark, 



1^2 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



crawling forms. The A-mer-i-cans rose up and fired 
a volley from over the breast-works. Some of the 
In-di-ans were killed, but hundreds now sprang to 
their feet, and a shower of arrows swept the top of 
the wooden breast-works. Had not a great number 
of loop-holes been made in the in-trench-ments, at 
which men were placed to keep up a constant fire, 
and men with rifles clubbed to knock ev-er-y dark 
head that ap-pear-ed above the wall, the In-di-ans 
would have swarmed over the in-trench-ments and 
scalped ev-er-y man of Har-ri-son's force. As it was, 
many were wounded and killed in the for-ti-fi-ca-tion. 
When the In-di-ans found they could not take the 
works, they ran down to the river and sent clouds of 
fi-er-y arrows against the wooden walls. Soon these 
blazing arrows were sticking all over its sides, but 
the damp wood would not burn. 

The Prophet, who had seen the failure of the first 
attack, now or-der-ed his reserve force forward at the 
quick beat of the drum. When eighty rods from the 
works, the river force came up and joined the Proph- 
et's column in the rear. Now the Chief's forces 
num-ber-ed two or three thousand, and it was feared 
they would take the works by storm. 

The order was given for the troops in the fort to 
form in line, one after the other, and as the front line 
dis-charg-ed their pieces, they were to quickly crawl 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



H3 



back, reload and reform in the rear. Again and 

again the lines fired and re-treat-ed, and great fear 

was be-gin-ning to be felt as to the outcome of the 

battle, when a cry was heard along the savage line, 

^*The Prophet 

is slam! 1 he ^.^^^^ 

Prophet is 



slain!" From a 
thousand ter-ri- 
fi-ed lips were 
soon heard 
moanin'g and 
cries of woe. 
The battle was 
ended. The 
braves turned 
their backs up- 
on Gen. Har- 
ri-son's works, 
and sought the 
spot where lay 
their Chief. 



«-^J>r 




THE BATTLE-SCARRED OAK OF TIP-PE-CA-NOE. 



Taking him up they began a hasty retreat. It was 
af-ter-ward learned that the Prophet had not been 
killed, but his shoulder had been shat-ter-ed. He 
lived some years after, but the In-di-ans had lost 
con-fi-dence in him. 



/^^ HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Te-cum-seh, on his return, only saw that his grand 
In-di-an league had been o-ver-thrown by the rash- 
ness of the Prophet, and he was very angry at him. 
To revenge himself on the A-mer-i-cans, he joined 
the British forces with about five hundred braves, 
the next year after the U-ni-ted States had de-clar-ed 
war upon England. 

When Mich-i-gan was made a ter-ri-to-ry, in 1805, 
Gen-er-al Hull was ap-point-ed Gov-ern-or, as well 
as Mil-i-tary Com-mand-er. The seat of gov-ern- 
ment was at Detroit. Gen-er-al Hull was in com- 
mand of the frontier forces which en-camp-ed at 
Springwells near Detroit, on July 4th, 1812. On 
the 5th, the army crossed the river and landed at 
Sandwich, in Can-a-da. Hull was not mo-lest-ed by 
the English, as he ex-pect-ed. His army made a 
fine display while marching through the town, the 
French settlers waving their hand-ker-chiefs with ev-i- 
dent sat-is-fac-tion as they passed along, and crying 
out, ''We like the Yankees. We need not run from 

them." 

After in-trench-ing the camp, Gen-er-al Hull 
issued a proc-la-ma-tion to the Can-a-di-ans, telling 
them, *'if they staid at home and at-tend-ed to their 
own bus-i-ness, their prop-er-ty would not be touched ; 
but, if a white man was taken fighting with an In-di- 
an, both would be in-stant-ly put to death." 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 14s 

Here Gen-er-al Hull re-main-ed a month, when, 
hearing the In-di-ans had formed a junction with the 
British ; that they were swarming in great numbers 
to join the Enghsh, and Fort Mack-i-naw had been 
sur-ren-der-ed, he there-up-on de-cid-ed, on the 7th 
of August, 18 1 2, to return to Detroit. He was 
blamed by his of-fi-cers for this, as his army was a 
third larger than the English at this point, and they 
thought he ought to have given them battle. But if 
Gen-er-al Hull was blamed for not at-tack-ing his 
en-e-my on English ground, much more was he con- 
demn-ed for giving up Detroit to a handful of the 
English, on the 15th of the same month. The rea- 
son he gave was this: he was short of am-mu-ni-tion 
and pro-vis-ions, and feared the mas-sa-cre of the 
whole set-tle-ment should he try to stand a siege. 

At the close of >the war, he was tried before a 
court martial at Al-ba-ny, New York, upon three 
charges — treason, cow-ard-ice, and neglect of duty. 
The charge of treason was not proven, but the other 
two charges were, and the Gen-er-al was or-der-ed to 
be shot. But on account of his ser-vi-ces in the War 
for In-de-pend-ence, and his age, Pres-i-dent Mad-i- 
son re-fus-ed to agree to this pun-ish-ment, and merely 
dis-miss-ed him from the army. 

The Gen-er-al's friends claimed, that at his age, 
the civil and mil-i-ta-ry duties of the post were too 



1^6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

great for him, but a more honest man and a greater 
pat-ri-ot never Hved. The of-fi-cers in an army have 
their jeal-ous-ies and desire for revenge, just as other 
men, and we are not always able to tell who is right 
and who is wrong. 

The naval fight between six English and nine 
A-mer-i-can battle-ships at the head of Lake Erie, 
on Sep-tem-ber loth, 1813, was won by the A-mer-i- 
cans. It was after this battle that Com-mo-dore 
Perry sent his famous dispatch to Gen-er-al Har-ri- 
son, ''We have met the en-e-my, and they are ours." 
This battle did much to show the English that the 
A-mer-i-cans were in earnest, and would never ''give 
up the ship." 

After Gen-er-al Hull was cap-tur-ed, Gen-er-al 
Har-ri-son was in command of the army of the West. 
He was ex-pect-ed to take back Mich-i-gan. His 
army crossed over to Can-a-da in Perry's ships on 
the 27th of Sep-tem-ber, 18 13. Upon reaching 
Maiden, he found the town empty. Gen-er-al Proc- 
tor, the English of-fi-cer, with most of his force, had 
run away. His ally, old Te-cum-seh, was so angry 
at this, that he com-par-ed Gen-er-al Proctor " to an 
old fat dog, who could bark loud enough, but at the 
first sound of a gun, would sneak off with his tail 
between his legs." 

Maiden being but eighteen miles from Sandwich, 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. ,.. 

op-po-site Detroit, the way was clear to retake the 
tort which was qiu-et-ly done on the 28th of Seo- 
tem-ber, 1813. 

On the 5th of Oc-to-ber, Gen-er-al Har-ri-son's 
forces o-ver-took Gen-er-al Proctor at Mo-ra-vi-an 
Town, on the River Thames, and in ten minutes 
took I-us whole force, with the ex-cep-tion of sev-en- 
teen oM-cers, two hundred and thirty-nine men, and 
himself His brave ally, Te-cum-seh, who had com- 
mand-ed the right wing of Proctor's army, and who 
had been wounded in holding the passage of the 
river took off his u-ni-form and laid aside his sword 
He knew he would be cap-tur-ed sooner or later.' 
i'utting on his hunting clothes he now fought with 
re-new-ed en-er-gy. 

Seeing Col-on-el Johnson, of the A-mer-i-can 
torces, wounded and struggling under his fallen 
u^\i e-cum-seh ran forward to tom-a-hawk him 
when the Col-on-el took aim and shot the Chief dead 
n?tK pP^f- u Mack-i-naw re-main-ed in the hands 
ot the bnghsh until peace was de-clar-ed in 18 14 
in ,« l"° "ir L^^/s Cass, who had been ap-point-ed, 
O K, °^ K ^^u *'^ ^^^*"' M^^'-^hal of the State of 
;i,:\ % Thomas Jef-fer-son, and pro-mo-ted in 
18 13 by Pres-.-dent Mad-i-son, to the rank of Brig-a- 

v^ov-ern-or of the Ter-ri-to-ry of Mich-i-gan. 



148 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

In fol-low-ing the his-to-ry of Detroit, you will 
un-der-stand what an im-port-ant po-si-tion this city 
oc-cu-pies. It was taken pos-ses-sion of by the 
French in 1701; trans-fer-red to England in 1760; 
given up to the U-ni-ted States, by England, in 
1796; sur-ren-der-ed to the English in 181 2, and re- 
taken by the U-ni-ted States in 1813. Its pos-ses- 
sion has been the object of many battles, and num- 
bers of bloody mas-sa-cres. It is the key to the great 
water-way of the Con-ti-nent, and must always belong 
to the U-ni-ted States. 

It was, while standing upon an A-mer-i-can ship 
during one of the bom-bard-ments of the War of 
1812, that Francis S. Key wrote "The Star Span- 
gled Banner." Five times the flag waving from the 
staff at Detroit has been changed. Is it not the wish 
of ev-er-y boy in the U-ni-ted States, that the *' Stars 
and Stripes" at this place, may never again be sup- 
plant-ed by the Red Cross of England? 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MICH-I-GAN A STATE. 



After Mich-i-gan's place in the Union of States 
had been won, her five thousand people found them- 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



149 



selves poor, and therefore dis-con-tent-ed. The war 
had left some households without a father to care for, 
or sons to protect them. What little progress had 
been made in tilling the land had been in-ter-rupt-ed 
by lack of la-bor-ers; there were no roads to travel 
upon, and the In- 
di-ans were not 



any too friendly. 
They had been 
used to re-ceiv-ing 
presents from the 
French and Eng- 
lish, and looked 
to see the same 
custom car-ri-ed 
out by the U-ni- 
ted States; but 




EARLY CHURCHES. 



ROMAN CATH-O-LIC. 



PRO-TEST-ANT. 



the U-ni-ted States Gov-ern-ment was poor — it had 
nothing but land to give. After Lewis Cass was 
ap-point-ed Gov-ern-or of the ter-ri-to-ry, he heard 
the In-di-ans were dis-sat-is-fi-ed with the new order 
of things. In 181 7, he called the tribes to-geth-er 
and per-suad-ed them to sign a treaty by which most 
of the land in O-hi-o, a part of In-di-an-a and much 
more of Mich-i-gan, was given up to the U-ni-ted 
States. This land could now be sold to settlers for 
small sum, and with a clear title; the In-di-ans 



a 



J50 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



having sold it would no more trouble the buyers. 
But, when the sur-vey-ors of the Gov-ern-ment 
came to measure the public lands of the northwest, 
in their report they de-clar-ed the land of Mich-i- 




DETROIT IN 18^8. 



gaii was not good enough to settle upon. They 
said it was covered with a poor kind of pine trees 
called *'Tam-a-rack;" that the ter-ri-to-ry was full of 
dan-ger-ous marshes, cov-er-ed with high grass, which, 
if a man on horseback should try to travel over, they 
would both for-ev-er dis-ap-pear from sight. The 
soldiers of the Rev-o-lu-tion who were to be given 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. z^i 

one hundred and sixty acres each, of these western 
lands, would take nothing in Mich-i-gan. There 
were about six million acres of this land. Gov- 
ern-or Cass knew these sur-vey-ors had not made a 
truthful report, and thought the best way to show its 
fal-si-ty was to try and get people to settle upon lands 
around Detroit; then these people would see that the 
soil of Mich-i-gan would grow ev-er-y-thing planted 
upon it, perhaps more a-bund-ant-ly than the lands 
in the States of O-hi-o and In-di-an-a, so fa-vor-a-bly 
re-port-ed on by the sur-vey-ors. The result was as 
Gov-ern-or Cass had ex-pect-ed. People began to 
flock to Detroit. 

It was about this time (1819), a steamboat, called 
** Walk-in-the-Water," made its ap-pear-ance on the 
western lakes. It passed Detroit on its way to 
Mack-i-naw. This prom-is-ed the people quicker 
trans-por-ta-tion for what they raised on their land. 
A year after a census was taken, and Mich-i-gan was 
found to have a pop-u-la-tion of about nine thousand. 
But the people would only settle along the large 
rivers which were nav-i-ga-ble for boats. 

Gov-ern-or Cass and a party of Mich-i-gan men 
wishing to explore the State, in order to report to 
Congress the truth con-cern-ing Mich-i-gan's nat-u- 
ral wealth, the wishes of the people for roads and 
harbors, started on their journey in May, 18 19. 



^52 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



They trav-el-ed about four thousand miles; re-turn- 
ing in the summer, they ap-peal-ed to Congress for 
an ap-pro-pri-a-tion, and money was soon sent to 
build a good road between Detroit and the Mi-am-i 

River, one be- 
tween Detroit 
and Chi-ca- 
go, and an- 
oth-er from 
Detroit to 
Fort Gratiot. 
The ter-ri-to- 
ry was then 
di-vid-ed into 
townships six 
miles square, 
and ev-er-y 
township into 
a section one 
mile square. In 1 824, the first Leg-is-la-tive Council 
met in Detroit. Gov-ern-or Cass read his message, 
and the people began to feel that they were a part of 
the Great Re-pub-lic. They talked about ev-er-y- 
thing they needed: schools; their hopes of soon be- 
ing able to work their mines ; the true bound-a-ry line 
of their State; and many other things that men in- 
ter-est-ed in the growth of their State would think of. 




EX-PLOR-ING PARTY 




EARLY SETTLER GOING TO MILL. 



153 



^54 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 




■S?'^^^^^^.'p,>.V.V s ' :>» " 



STAGE COACH OF THE OLD DAYS. 



So great had been the change in pubhc o-pin-ion 
con-cern-ing Mich-i-gan, after Gov-ern-or Cass' true 
report, that in 1830, the pop-u-la-tion amounted to 
thirty-five thousand, and four years after to eighty- 
seven thousand. 

The com-ple-tion of the Erie Canal in 1825, had 

made a cheap and safe 
water-way for the em- 
i-grants from New 
York Citv to Detroit. 
Gov-ern-or Cass 
had made so good a 
ter-ri-to-ri-al of-fi-cer, 
that Gen-er-al Jackson, in 1831, asked him to come 
to Wash-ing-ton and be his Sec-re-ta-ry of War. A 
Mr. Porter was then ap-point-ed Gov-ern-or of Mich- 
i-gan. His sec-re-ta-ry was Stephen T. Mason, a boy 
but nineteen years old. 

In 1835, the people began to think they had 
lived long enough in a ter-ri-to-ry. They wanted to 
live in a State. They thought they were old enough, 
and there were enough of them, to ask Congress to 
admit them to all the rights and ben-e-fits of the 
union of States. 

Ac-cord-ing-ly, the Leg-is-la-tive Council passed 
an Act, al-low-ing eighty-nine del-e-gates to meet in 
con-ven-tion and form a State Con-sti-tu-tion. Be- 






HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 755 

fore the people had been gov-ern-ed by the U-ni-ted 
States Con-sti-tu-tion. So they met in May of the 
same year, at Detroit, and by the fol-low-ing Oc-to- 
ber, the whole ma-chin-er-y of a State was in good 
running order. The next step to take was to elect a 
set of State of-fi-cers, and 
who do you think the peo- 
ple of Mich-i-gan e-lect-ed 
for their first Gov-ern-or? 
You may think they chose 
Gen-er-al Cass, for he was 
con-sid-er-ed the father of i 
their ter-ri-to-ry. They 
could not have him, be- 
cause, you re-mem-ber, 
Gen-er-al Jackson had 
made him Sec-re-ta-ry of 
War. Perhaps, Gov-ern-or 
Porter. No; for he had 

died. Who, then? Well, they e-lect-ed the .^y 
sec-re-ta-ry, Stephen T.Mason, for Gov-ern-or— a boy 
but twenty-two years old ; the youngest man that ever 
oc-cu-pi-ed so high a place in the U-ni-ted States. 
Ui course, the older men of the new State thought 
he was not ca-pa-ble of holding such a po-si-tion, a'nd 
sent five of their best cit-i-zens to ask him to resign. 
1 his boy had been care-ful-ly reared in a Ken-tuck-y 




HON. STEPHEN T. MASON. 



boy 



J ^6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

home. His father was a Gen-er-al in the army. 
This boy had been e-lect-ed Gov-ern-or of the State 
of Mich-i-gan, and thought he could perform the 
duties of Gov-ern-or, though he was a boy. At least, 
he wished to try it. So, he met this com-mit-tee in 
a polite way, and lis-ten-ed to their request. In his 
re-fus-al to comply, he made this very sen-si-ble re- 
mark: ''A young man," said he, ''will be more ready 
to accept the advice of his elders than one of riper 

years." 

This so pleased the com-mit-tee that they made 
no further ob-jec-tions, and ever after were his best 

friends. 

Two years later he was re-e-lect-ed to the same 
office, which was the way the people of Mich-i-gan 
took to tell him, they were well sat-is-fi-ed with the 
manner in which he had man-a-ged the great office 
of Gov-ern-or of their State. He died sud-den-ly, 
not many years after, in the city of New York. 

When Mich-i-gan was about to become a State, 
trouble arose between herself and O-hi-o, as to her 
exact bound-a-y line. O-hi-o said Mich-i-gan in- 
tend-ed to steal from her a strip of land about eight 
miles in width, along her northern bound-a-ry. 
Mich-i-gan said she did not intend to steal what was 
her own al-read-y. At the eastern end of this strip 
stood the town of To-le-do, a port which Mich-i-gan 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 137 

wanted to keep, and O-hi-o was de-ter-min-ed to 

have. 

Gov-ern-or Mason, of Mich-i-gan, raised a force 
of a thousand men, and with Gen-er-al Brown, took 
pos-ses-sion of To-le-do. Gov-ern-or Lucas, of O-hi-o, 
had a force of but six hundred, and, therefore, was 
com-pell-ed to wait for more men before at-tack-ing" 
the young Gov-ern-or, at To-le-do. So they sat and 
looked at each other over the border. 

The Gov-ern-ment, at Wash-ing-ton, was then 
asked to settle the dispute, and after a bloodless war- 
fare of more than a year, it came to the aid of the 
two States, by pro-pos-ing to give Mich-i-gan what is 
called the Upper Pe-nin-su-la, if Mich-i-gan would 
give to O-hi-o those poor little eight miles she thought 
she must have. Mich-i-gan took the Pe-nin-su-la, 
not knowing what a bargain she had made. Just 
look at the map, my young reader, and see which 
you would rather have. 

Soon after Mich-i-gan was ad-mit-ted into the 
Union, im-mi-gra-tion began to flow toward the north- 
west ; most of these im-mi-grants wished to buy land 
for farms. Then began what is now called the great 
**Land Fever." Farms were sold by blazed trees, 
and towns laid out upon the water of swamps. Ev- 
er-y-bod-y that had money bought a quarter-section, 
and those that had none, bor-row-ed some to start a 



iss 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



village at the junction of two rivers or a cross-roads. 
The doctor, the preacher, the lawyer, the teacher, 
ev-er-y-bod-y, spec-u-la-ted in land. Some were suc- 




SPORTS OF EARLY SETTLERS. 



cess-ful and some were not ; those that were not, gen- 
er-al-ly went to other new States, or ''further West." 
The first printing-press brought to Mich-i-gan 
was the prop-er-ty of a Cath-o-lic priest, the Rev. 
Ga-bri-el Richard, af-ter-ward Vicar-Gen-er-al of the 
Roman Cath-o-lic Church. In 1809, he pub-lish-ed, 
at Detroit, a small gazette, called ''The Im-par-tial 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i^g 

Ob-serv-er." Here he built the stone church, St. 
Anne, out of the pay he re-ceiv-ed in 1823, as mem- 
ber of Congress. This priest re-sid-ed at .Detroit 
thirty-four years, and was a very pubhc-spir-it-ed and 
gen-er-ous man. He died with the chol-e-ra in 1832, 
after spending days and nights in con-sol-ing the sick, 
and per-form-ing ser-vi-ces for the dying. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MICH-I-GAN IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

Owing to the nearness of Mich-i-gan to Can-a-da, 
ner people began to take an in-ter-est in the slav-er-y 
question at an early date. In 1833, a riot oc-cur-red 
in Detroit on account of the arrest of a run-a-way 
slave and his wife, named Blackburn. Their master 
be-long-ed in Ken-tuck-y, and the sheriff of Detroit 
had placed them in jail until they could be sent for. 
The slave woman es-cap-ed ; while the of-fi-cer was 
taking the man from prison to send him back to his 
master, a number of col-or-ed people rushed upon 
him, res-cu-ed the slave, and hur-ri-ed him across the 
Detroit River into Can-a-da. The town bell rane, 
and the cry, ''to arms," was heard in all di-rec-tions. 
The sheriff was ter-ri-bly beaten with clubs, barely 



i6o HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

es-cap-ing with his Hfe. The city council was called 
to-geth-er, and passed a law, ''that no negro would 
be al-low-ed there-af-ter, to walk at night in the streets 
without a lighted lantern." 

In Mich-i-gan, as in other States, there were peo- 
ple who thought a law of the country must be o-bey- 
ed, no matter what that law was. They said, **if 
the law is wrong it should be changed, but while it 
was law it must be o-bey-ed." There was a law, that 
a slave who had run away from his master could be 
re-turn-ed to him. Some said, it was a wicked law, 
and ought not to be o-bey-ed, and so when-ev-er they 
could help a slave over the line to Can-a-da they did 
so. Others said, a slave was his master's prop-er-ty 
and must be re-turn-ed wher-ev-er found, the same 
as a horse or an ox. 

A second slave riot took place at Detroit in 1839. 
A man from Mis-sou-ri found his slave here, and 
had him ar-rest-ed. A great many free blacks and 
white people, then called ''ab-o-li-tion-ists, ' as-sem- 
bled and at-tempt-ed to take the slave away from the 
of-fi-cer. But they were not suc-cess-ful this time. 
The slave was not given back to his master. 

The people of Detroit got to-geth-er, and gave 
enough money to buy him, when he was given his 
lib-er-ty. 

From these attempts of the slaves of the South 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i6i 

to escape to Can-a-da, and the aid they re-ceiv-ed from 
northern people, began the trouble which ended in 
a civil war in the U-ni-ted States, and, fi-nal-ly, in the 
freedom of all the slaves in the country. 

When A-bra-ham Lincoln was e-lect-ed Pres-i- 
dent, in i860, the southern people thought they were 
going to lose all their slaves, which was the same to 
them as any other prop-er-ty, because a good slave 
cost as much as a thousand dollars, and some plant- 
ers owned as many as two or three hundred. They 
thought they could not work their land without these 
slaves, and so got to-geth-er and said they would not 
belong to the Union any longer, if they could not do 
as they liked with their own prop-er-ty. They with- 
drew, or se-ced-ed, and started a gov-ern-ment of 
their own, at Richmond, Vir-gin-i-a, e-lect-ing Jef-fer- 
son Davis as their Pres-i-dent. 

The people of the northern States said the forts 
of the country all be-long-ed to the Gov-ern-ment, 
at Wash-ing-ton. The southern people said, when 
they gave the land to the Gov-ern-ment to build these 
forts upon, the Gov-ern-ment prom-is-ed they should 
never be used against the State giving it. And so, 
when the southern men had met, se-ced-ed, and. 
called themselves the ''Southern Con-fed-er-a-cy," 
and at-tempt-ed to take pos-ses-sion of Fort Sumter, 
in Charleston Harbor, Major An-der-son, then in 



i62 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

command, would not allow it. The southern forces, 
at Charleston, then bom-bard-ed the fort for thirty-six 
hours, nearly de-stroy-ing it. 

When the news reached the North that Fort 
Sumter had been fired upon, the ex-cite-ment among 
the people was intense. But, on the 15th of April, 
when it was known the fort had been taken, the ex- 
cite-ment was greatly in-creas-ed. In almost ev-er-y 
northern village the people ran to their court-houses, 
rung bells, and called meetings to talk about what 
should be done. Before, they had thought all this 
talk of ''war" was mere boasting. Pres-i-dent Lin- 
coln, the same day, called for sev-en-ty-five thousand 
troops. In the large towns of Mich-i-gan, the cit-i- 
zens met, and sent word to Wash-ing-ton that they 
were ready to do their part to keep the States all 
to-geth-er, and take back the prop-er-ty which they 
thought be-long-ed to the U-ni-ted States. 

There were the frames of twenty-eight mi-li-tia 
com-pa-nies in the State, but not more than a thou- 
sand men who could take the field. Re-cruit-ing 
began on the i6th of April. On the 13th of May, 
1 86 1, the First Reg-i-ment, under the command of 
Col-on-el O. B. Wilcox, left for Wash-ing-ton. Three 
more reg-i-ments were re-cruit-ed, when word was 
re-ceiv-ed from the Sec-re-ta-ry of War, that no more 
men would be needed! This will show you how 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



i6j 



little the statesmen of the North knew of the de-ter- 
min-a-tion of the South to form a sep-a-rate gov-ern- 
ment. Instead of 2,500 men, which Mr. Stanton 
thought would be all Mich-i-gan would need to send 
to help put down the Re-bell-ion, she sent 90,747, 
out of a pop-u-la-tion of not more than 800,000. Of 
these 90,747, almost fourteen 
thousand were killed, wounded, 
or died from sickness while in 
the field. Mich-i-gan spent very 
nearly ten million dollars as her 
share in the Gov-ern-ment's ex- 
pense in car-ry-ing on this war. 
In pro-por-tion to her pop-u-la- 
tion she lost the most soldiers of 
any northern State. She has 
now 21,873 people re-ceiv-ing soldiers' and sailors' mon-u- 

pensions. War is a fearful thing, ^^^^^' 

and causes great sorrow and distress all over the land. 

If the people in a na-tion-al quarrel could come 
to-geth-er and talk over their causes of complaint, as 
they often do in per-son-al dif-fer-en-ces, they would 
gen-er-al-ly come to a set-tle-ment, I think ; don't you ? 

Had the North and South sup-pos-ed that four 
millions of men must at last be taken from the busy 
walks of life ; from wives, mothers, sisters and homes, 
to meet and kill each other in battle, and, too, that 




.^ifi^^i 



<i/'i,V. 



j64 history of MICHIGAN. 

billions upon billions of money would be needed to 
carry on this ter-ri-ble struggle, do you not think the 
North would have rather taken this money and 
bought the freedom of these slaves, and that the 
southern men would much rather have sold them for 
what they were worth, than run the risk of losing 
ev-er-y-thing, as they did, when the North o-ver-pow- 
er-ed them ? I do. 

After de-stroy-ing all these lives, and spending 
all this money and time, the Gov-ern-ment of the 
U-ni-ted States must con-tin-ue to pay to those 
wounded, the widows, children, and parents of the 
killed, over eighty-two millions of dollars ev-er-y 
year. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

PROM-I-NENT MEN AND WOMEN OF MICH-I-GAN. 

In men-tion-ing the most noted persons of a 
State, the practice is common of taking those who 
first settled the country, and became suc-cess-ful in 
a-mass-ing wealth, or in reaching high po-lit-i-cal 
po-si-tions. 

But you must not think, my young reader, that 
success is always the sign of merit. Some men think 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i6^ 

there is but one object in life to work for, and that 
object is to make money; others are hap-pi-er while 
spending their time in study and writing books; 
others in painting pictures, mod-el-ing statues, and 
stud-y-ing music; others in trying to invent machines 
to save work, and others in efforts to help the poor 
and sick, to be found in ev-er-y village, town, city and 
State in the country. 

There are men in Mich-i-gan who have made 
rep-u-ta-tions in nearly all of the above-men-tion-ed 
pursuits, and I will tell you something of their lives. 
Perhaps the most noted man con-nect-ed with the 
po-lit-i-cal growth and pros-per-i-ty of Mich-i-gan, is 
Lewis Cass. For fifty years no great im-prove-ment 
in the State was un-der-tak-en without the prom-is-ed 
aid of Lewis Cass. Some people, at Wash-ing-ton, 
called him *' Mich-i-gan," so bound up was he in the 
in-ter-ests of his be-lov-ed State. He was born, 
how-ev-er, at Ex-e-ter, New Hampshire, in 1782^ 
about the time of the peace between England and 
the U-ni-ted States. Most of the early settlers of 
the western States were born in New England. But 
the young man Cass, after grad-u-a-ting at Dartmouth 
College, con-clud-ed he would start out in life in a 
new country. At the age of sev-en-teen, he trav-el-ed 
on foot to Ma-ri-et-ta, O-hi-o, where he en-ter-ed an 
office for the study of law. He was a hard student, 



j66 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



and at the age of twenty-five began his long po-ht-i- 
cal career as leg-Is-la-tor in the State of O-hi-o. To 
him is given the credit of ex-pos-ing Aaron Burr's 
in-ten-tion of building up a new re-pub-lic in the 
southwest. 

In 1807, Mr. Cass was made Marshal ot O-hi-o, 
by Thomas Jef-fer-son, third Pres-i-dent of theU-ni- 

ted States. In the year 
1 8 1 1 , news came from the 
frontier that the In-di-ans 
were doing great harm to 



the farms and homes of 
the early settlers. Lewis 
Cass en-list-ed, and be- 
came Col-on-el of a reg-i- 
ment of O-hi-o vol-un- 
teers. His com-mand, 
by dif-fi-cult marches, 
reached Detroit in 18 12. 
When war was de-clar-ed 
between the U-ni-ted 
States and England, Col-on-el Cass' troops fought 
and won the first battle at Tar-ou-toe. He was then 
ap-point-ed a Col-on-el in the reg-u-lar army, and 
shortly after pro-mo-ted to the rank of Brig-a-dier- 
Gen-er-al and Major-Gen-er-al, of O-hi-o vol-un-teers. 
After Gen-er-al Hull's sur-ren-der, Gen-er-al Cass 




LEWIS CASS. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i6y 

became aide-de-camp to Gen-er-al Har-ri-son, at the 
battle of the Tomes, which you know about. In 
1813, Pres-i-dent Mad-i-son ap-point-ed him Gov- 
ern-or of the Ter-ri-to-ry of Mich-i-gan. As chief 
of-fi-cer at Detroit, he was almost a king. He was 
Gen-er-al, Gov-ern-or and Judge. He was kind to 
the In-di-ans, and kept them friendly to the A-mer-i- 
cans. He held the office of Gov-ern-or for eighteen 
years. He had per-form-ed his va-ri-ous duties so 
well, in Mich-i-gan, that Pres-i-dent Andrew Jackson 
made him Sec-re-ta-ry of War in 1831, and in 1836 
Min-is-terto France. He staid in France six years, 
during which time he wrote a book on ^^ France, its 
King, Court, and Gov-ern-ment." 

In 1842, Min-is-ter Cass asked to be al-low-ed to 
comebacktohishomein Mich-i-gan. Three vears after 
his return he was elected U-ni-ted States Sen-a-tor, and 
m 1848 was asked by the Dem-o-crat-ic party to 
become their Pres-i-den-tial can-di-date. He re-sign- 
ed his sen-a-tor-ship and ac-cept-ed the nom-i-na-tion, 
but was beaten by ^^Old Rough and Ready" — Gen- 
er-al Zach-a-ry Taylor. The people of Mich-i-gan, 
not for-get-ting the ser-vi-ces and a-bil-i-ty of the Gen- 
er-al, re-e-lect-ed him to the Senate in 1849. When 
James Bu-chan-an became Pres-i-dent in i860, he 
gave Gen-er-al Cass the office of Sec-re-ta-ry of State. 
There are few men who have re-ceiv-ed so many 



i68 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



honors at the hands of their country as were given to 
Gen-er-al Gass, and few men there are who would be 
so com-pe-tent to fill them. He was an honest, in- 
dus-tri-ous, able, and pat-ri-ot-ic statesman. He died 
at the city he loved — Detroit^ — ^in 1866, at the age 

of eighty-four, a man hon- 
or-ed and loved by his 
fellow-coun-try-men. 

One of the pi-o-neers 
of Mich-i-gan, and man 
of note, was Mr. Joseph 
Campeau. His great 
grand-father, J acques 
(Jacob) Campeau, came 
from *' Sunny France" 
with the founder of De- 
troit, Antoine dela Motte 
Cad-il-lac. He was the 
private sec-re-ta-ry of the 
com-man-dant. It was at his son's house, in 1763, 
that Captain Rogers and his troops, pur-su-ed by 
Pon-ti-ac's vic-to-ri-ous sav-a-ges, took refuge after the 
battle of ''Bloody Run." In this same house Mr. 
Joseph Campeau was born in 1767. At the age of 
ten years he was sent to Mon-tre-al to school, and 
when he re-turn-ed to the remote mil-i-ta-ry post of 
Detroit he was called the French gen-tle-man, so 




JOSEPH CAMPEAU. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i6g 

ac-com-plish-ed and polite had he become. He soon 
after en-ter-ed upon a mer-can-tlle career, and was the 
first merchant to buy goods at Boston, instead of 
Mon-tre-al, as was the custom of the early traders. 
He was a very public spir-it-ed man, and in 1 806 built 
the St. Ann's Cath-o-lic Church, at Detroit. 

As soon as em-i-gra-tion began to flow toward 
Mich-i-gan, Mr. Campeau com-menc-ed to buy and 
sell land. The land was cleared and di-vid-ed into 
lots, houses built upon them, and thus com-fort-a-ble 
places could be had by the early settlers for a very 
little money. He was very kind to the poor men 
who bought his prop-er-ty, and it is said of Mr. Cam- 
peau, that he never caused a debtor a moment's hard- 
ship on account of the money owed him for his place. 

In 1812, he became a member of the North- 
western Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor 
was the Pres-i-dent. 

Besides these in-ter-ests, Mr. Campeau en-ter-ed 
en-thu-si-as-tic-al-ly into the bus-i-ness of stock-rais- 
ing. His im-por-ta-tion of the ''Norman Horse" to 
the northwest, did much to improve the breed of 
horses in Mich-i-gan. Upon his farms he is said to 
have had five hundred of these beau-ti-ful and useful 
an-i-mals at one time. He was very gen-er-ous with 
his money, helping to build churches, schools, rail- 
roads, and es-tab-lish banks. 



I'JO 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 



Unlike his friend, Lewis Cass, he would never 
hold public office, but was not averse to trying to 
in-flu-ence his coun-try-men in a-dopt-ing right and 
pat-ri-ot-ic prin-ci-ples. For this purpose, he and a 
re-la-tive es-tab-lish-ed **The Detroit Free Press," in 
1 83 1, which journal has been con-tin-u-ous-ly pub- 
lished to this day. 

Such was the busy and useful life of this worthy 
pi-o-neer merchant of Mich-i-gan, Joseph Campeau, 

who died in 1863, at the 
ven-er-a-ble age of ninety- 
five years. 

There is a man now liv- 
ing at Port Huron, Mich- 
i-gan — Judge Bunce — 
who was born in 1777. 
That was only two years, 
as you know, after we had 
told King George, of Eng- 
land, that we were old 
enouQrh to take care of 

were going 



ourselves, and 

to do It. But we had a 

hard time to make him 

believe it, and I am afraid, even with our Seven Years' 

War, we should not have won our lib-er-ty had it not 

been for the help of those eight or ten reg-i-ments of 




HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. lyi 

French soldiers, who, under La-fay-ette, got here just 
in the nick of time. 

Judge Bunce was eight years old when Wash- 
ing-ton was first chosen Pres-i-dent of the Re-pub-lic 
of the U-ni-ted States, and no doubt re-mem-bers 
something about that glo-ri-ous time. He has passed 
through ev-er-y Pres-i-den-tial e-lec-tion thus far held 
in our Re-pub-lic; he can re-mem-ber when there 
was not a canal, railway, or steamboat, in this coun- 
try, and all the trav-el-ing had to be done on horse- 
back, in a boat, or by the rustic wagon-wheel. He 
is known all over Mich-i-gan as **the pi-o-neer of St. 
Clair River." He was born in Hartford, Con-nec- 
ti-cut. Losing his father when but three years of 
age, at twelve he began to take care of himself. Like 
ev-er-y-bod-y else in those days, he bought furs for 
awhile, and learned the hatters trade. While in 
bus-i-ness at Al-ba-ny, New York, in 1816, a soldier 
on his way home from the mil-i-ta-ry post at Detroit, 
stopped at his store to buy himself a suit of clothes. 
He told Mr. Bunce how high-priced these things 
were on the frontier. 

The next year Mr. Bunce started with a wagon 
load of goods for Detroit. There were but twenty 
people then living at Roch-es-ter, New York. It 
was a long jour-ney to Mich-i-gan, and full of danger. 
Meeting a pack of wolves on one oc-ca-sion, the polite 



1^2 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

creatures o-pen-ed a way to let the young stranger 
pass. He settled at Port Huron in 1818, but had 
few neighbors for many years, except the In-di-ans. 
They were always friendly to him because he was 
always friendly to them. He built the first wagon 
road from his place to Fort Gratiot, and after that 
other roads, so that the early settlers could get about 
with teams. He built mills, for the people then had 
begun to raise wheat; then he was made justice of 
the peace, and after judge of probate, and then chief 
justice of the courts at Port Huron. 

At one time, it is said, he knew e-ver-y in-hab-it- 
ant of Mich-i-gan. It is a pleasant thing to see, and 
hear a man talk, as he can talk, of the be-gin-ning 
and progress of our be-lov-ed country; to hear his 
kindly ex-press-ed o-pin-ions, and the many statesmen 
he has seen rise and some fall; of the success or 
failure of their pol-i-cy; of the great growth of the 
country west of the Al-le-gha-nies, and above all, to 
hear him say, ''the fathers of this Re-pub-lic builded 
better than the fathers of any Re-pub-lic since the 
world began." 

He has seen a country of thirteen small col-o-nies 
become a chain of forty-two pros-per-ous States, with 
more ''to be heard from." It is the hope, we feel 
sure, of ev-er-ry lover of this country, that if Judge 
Bunce were to live to be nine hundred and ninety- 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



^73 



nine years old, he would still see this land the land of 
peace, plenty, and freedom from all forms of in-jus- 
tice and cru-el-ty. 

A great many of the first people to settle in 
Mich-i-gan came from New England. Zach-a-ri-ah 
Chandlerwas one of these. 
He was born in New 
Hampshire in 1813, and 
moved to Detroit in 1833. 
His bus-i-ness was that of 
merchant for many years, 
but that did not prevent 
his taking an in-ter-est in 
the public affairs of his 
State and his country. 
When the question of free- 
ing the slaves came up in 
the country, Mr. Chandler 
took the side of the Re- 
pub-li-can party, and was e-lect-ed to the U-ni-ted 
States Senate in 1857. He was re-e-lect-ed in 1863, 
in 1869, and again in 1875. This was proof that 
his State was sat-is-fi-ed with his ser-vi-ces, and when 
he died he was sin-cere-ly mourned by a large circle 
of friends and ad-mir-ers. 

There is a saying that the more knowledge a good 
man has, the better e-quip-ped he is for earning his 




HON. ZACH-A-RI-AH CHANDLER. 



174 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



li 



id th( 



^ful h« 



be to his fell( 



I 



\AJimk,, 



iving, ana tne more useiui ne can oe to nis lenow 
men. This saying is ex-em-pH-fi-ed in the Hfe and 
ser-vi-ces of George Van Ness Lathrop, of Detroit. 
He was, also, born in New England, and after grad- 
u-a-ting from Brown U-ni-ver-si-ty, in Rhode Island, 
he en-ter-ed the Harvard 
Law School, near Boston. 
When pre-par-ed for en- 
ter-ing upon the practice of 
his chosen pro-fes-sion, he 
moved to Mich-i-gan, and 
settled in Detroit in 1844. 
For forty years he has 
passed in and out under 
the watchful eyes of his 
neighbors and as-so-ci-ates, 
and none can be found to 
say that he has not filled 
ev-er-y po-si-tion with dig- 
ni-ty, a-bil-i-ty and honor, 
placed. 

When Mr. Cleveland was e-lect-ed Pres-i-dent in 
1884, he se-lect-ed Mr. Lathrop to rep-re-sent the 
U-ni-ted States at St. Pe-ters-burg, Russia. After 
re-main-ing at this post for four years, which he filled 
with dis-tinc-tion, he was re-mov-ed by Pres-i-dent 
Har-ri-son. Re-turn-inor to his old home, he has 




HON. GEORGE VAN NESS LATHROP. 



in which he has been 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



^75 



re-sum-ed the tem-po-ra-rl-ly broken thread of his 
busy Hfe, wel-com-ed and hon-or-ed by his whole 
State. 

An-oth-er gen-tle-man who has re-ceiv-ed many 
honors from the State, is Mr. Omar D. Conger. 
He came to Mich-i-gan 
in early life, and settled 
at Port Huron. He is a 
lawyer, and has been a 
member of Congress sev- 
er-al terms, during which 
time he ac-cept-a-bly 
served as member of the 
Com-m it-tee on Com- 
merce. 

There have been a 
great many other re- 
nown-ed people in Mich-i- 
gan, many of whom are dead and many are still liv- 
ing. One of the former was Major Hall. He 
se-cur-ed the charters for lines of railroads to finish 
the con-nec-tion between Al-ba-ny and Buf-fa-lo, and 
for the road that is now called the New York & Erie. 
In 1855 he was en-ga-ged upon the con-struc-tion of 
the Detroit & Mil-wau-kee railroad. When Pres-i- 
dent Lincoln called for troops, in the late war, 
although sixty-three years of age, he en-ter-ed the 




HON. O. D. CONGER. 



1^6 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

service, and when peace was de-clar-ed, was bre-vet-ed 
Major. 

Re-turn-inghome, he was made Pres-i-dent of the 
Grand Rapids & Lake Shore railroad, now the 
Chi-ca-go & Mich-i-gan Lake Shore road. When 
this road was com-plet-ed, he or-gan-iz-ed the Grand 
Rapids & Sag-i-naw Hne. Major Hall may well be 
called, the ''Father of Mich-i-gan Railroads." 

An-oth-er man of na-tion-al renown, was Robert 
Mc-Clel-land. He came to Mich-i-gan in 1833, and 
was a lawyer of fine parts. He passed through all 
the places of trust the State could give him, and in 
1853 was made Sec-re-ta-ry of the In-te-ri-or by 
Pres-i-dent Pierce. 



CHAPTER XXH. 

MF.N OF MICH-I-GAN WHO HAVE WON NA-TION-AL 

REP-U-TA-TIONS. 

Boys have been told ''to beware of am-bi-tion ;" 
but this does not mean to beware of that am-bi-tion 
which inspires a boy to wish to have his name known 
to the world, as one who has, through some great 
dis-cov-er-y — in-ven-tion, writing, or humane effort — 
made mankind hap-pi-er and better. ^ 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. lyy 

So thought the men, I doubt not, whose labors I 
wish to tell you about in this chapter. 

After Mich-i-gan became a State, for some years, 
persons wishing to make homes for themselves in the 
Far West, passed over her roads into Wis-con-sin 
and down to Il-li-nois, rather than try to settle in 
what they had heard was an un-health-y and un-pro- 
duct-ive State. When Mich-i-gan had been in the 
Unioix ten years, her pop-u-la-tion had in-creas-ed to 
only 2 1 2,000 ; but when Wis-con-sin had been a State 
ten years, her people num-ber-ed 305,000. 

A good and well-ed-u-ca-ted man, named Will- 
iam T. Howell, who wished to see his State grow, 
and who knew the stories told by the great fur com- 
pa-nies about her poorness of soil and bad climate, 
were untrue, thought of a plan to entice people to 
settle upon her lands. He was a lawyer, and lived 
at Jonesville. Pre-par-ing a paper in which he said 
the State ought to give to ev-er-y man who would 
come and make his home in it, 160 acres of land, 
he car-ri-ed the paper to the Leg-is-la-ture, calling 
it "The Homestead Bill," and fi-nal-ly suc-ceed-ed 
in having it passed. It was the first law of the kind 
en-act-ed in any of the States of A-mer-i-ca. 

Whe he re-turn-ed to Jonesville after the passage 
of his bill, he was re-ceiv-ed by a pro-ces-sion of cit-i- 
zens, blowing tin horns, who de-rid-ed him for his 



lyS 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



of-fi-cious action. This shows how Httle the people 
know and respect their true ben-e-fact-ors. 

Before Mich-i-gan was a State, a young man of 
sterhng qual-i-ties left his home in Western New 

York, and join- 
ing the A-mer- 
i-can forces on 
their un-suc- 
cess-ful attack 
on Fort Bur- 
hng-ton,es-cap- 
ed with some 
others in ca- 
noes, reaching 
Buf-fa-lo after 
ex-pe-ri-enc-ing 
a o^reat manv 
hardships. Af- 
ter peace was 
de-clar-ed, he 
se-lect-ed a farm in Mich-i-gan, Macomb County, and 
began his manly career. Never having been able to 
attend school, all he knew he had learned by hard 
study at night; but he knew sur-vey-ing and mill- 
building. His chief delight was in the study of 
as-tron-o-my, how-ev-er. 

After be-com-ing known to the few settlers in his 




THE FIRE-PLACE OF OUR GRAND-FATHERS. 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



lyg 



neigh-bor-hood, he was e-lect-ed county sur-vey-or; 
seeing his com-pe-ten-cy, he was, a few years after, 
ap-point-ed district sur-vey-or, and afterward U-ni-ted 
States sur-vey-or. 

But, while thus en-ga-ged in earning his daily 
bread, ev-er-y spare moment of his time he spent in 
stud-y-ing the science of as-tron-o-my. At last he 
con-struct-ed a solar compass. In 1835 he took his 
model to Phil-a-del-phi-a, and ex-hib-it-ed it before 
the Franklin In-sti-tute, which a-ward-ed him a 
medal. Later, he per-fect-ed his in-stru-ment, and 
ex-hib-it-ed it at the World's Fair, in London, in 1857. 
The fol-low-ing cer-tif-i-cate ac-com-pa-ni-ed the medal 
re-ceiv-ed by the in-vent-or: 

'T hereby cer-ti-fy that Her Ma-jes-ty's com-mis- 
sion-ers, upon the award of the jurors, have pre-sent-ed 
a prize medal to William A. Burt, for a solar com- 
pass and sur-vey-ing in-stru-ment shown at the ex-hi- 
bi-tion. Albert." 

This was none other than Prince Albert, the 
husband of Queen Vic-to-ri-a, Queen of England. 
He in-vent-ed, also, an e-qua-to-ri-al sextant, to show 
the lat-i-tude, hour, etc., of a ship at sea. 

He was the dis-cov-er-er of the great bed of iron 
ore south of Teal Lake, and in other places, which 
now are such a source of wealth to Mich-i-gan. 

It is said no man had done so much to tell the 



i8o HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, 

« 

people of the country what value Mich-i-gan pos-sess- 
ed in beds of min-er-als, as Mr. Burt. He was a 
pi-o-neer worthy of the mem-o-ry of a great State. 

An-oth-er Mich-i-ran man who has rained a 
na-tion-al rep-u-ta-tion in the line of be-nef-i-cent 
in-ven-tions, is George M. Pullman. Not many 
years ago he was the pro-pri-e-tor of a fur-ni-ture shop 
at Grand Rapids. After railroads become the only 
means of trans-por-ta-tion, and long journeys were 
taken without stopping, Mr. Pullman's sym-pa-thies 
were, doubtless, ex-cit-ed on seeing in-va-lids, and 
mothers with little children, forced to sit all night on 
the then hard seats of the cars. The thought of a 
"sleeping car" was a thought worthy of a noble 
nature. That the sick and tired, forced to travel 
long days and nights, could do so in comfort was a 
rev-e-la-tion ! The thought was suc-cess-ful-ly worked 
out, and behold, the Palace Car! A car in which 
one may fly from one end of the con-ti-nent to the 
other, and dis-em-bark with as little wear-i-ness as in 
a journey of a thousand miles before this in-ven-tion 
was given to the world ! This was the humane work 
of a Mich-i-gan la-bor-ing man. 

But, of all the men of Mich-i-gan, and of his age, 
un-doubt-ed-ly the best known, is Thomas Alva 
Kd-i-son. He has won world-wide renown. 

Although not born in Mich-i-gan, his -parents 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



i8i 



moved from Milan, O-hi-o, to Port Huron, when he 
was but seven years of age. H is father was of Dutch 
descent, and his mother a Mass-a-chu-setts school 




-THOMAS A. ED-I-SON AT HIS LABORS. 



teacher. His mother taught him all he knew when 
young, as he never at-tend-ed school six months in 
his whole life. His mother read to him e-ven-ings, 
and his father made him a present of ev-er-y book he 
would read through. When not very old, his li-bra-ry 
shelves held such books as these: **His-to-ry of the 



i82 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Ref-or-ma-tion," Hume's ''His-to-ry of England," 
Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," 
and any number of works on sci-en-tif-ic subjects. 
He never played like other boys. If he wished to 
have a little fun, he built a small railroad track, dug 
a canal, or built a wharf. At the age of twelve, the 
busy little fellow found work to do as ''train boy" on 
the Grand Trunk railroad. He soon rained the 
only right to sell papers and fruit on the cars, and in 
a few months his bus-i-ness so in-creas-ed he was 
o-blig-ed to employ four boy-helpers. His profits 
a-mount-ed to about a dollar a day, which sum he 
cheer-ful-ly handed over to his good mother. She 
died in 1862, when her boy-genius was but fifteen 
years old. How much he must have missed her is 
shown in the life full of care he soon took upon him- 
self. On the train in which Thomas trav-el-ed was 
a baggage car, a part of which had been made into 
a smoking-room. But the smokers did not like it, so 
the idea struck this in-vent-ive boy, to fit up this little 
room for a lab-o-ra-to-ry. He bought chem-ic-als, a 
small printing-press, types and ink, and begun to edit, 
set up, and print a weekly paper, which he called 
''The Grand Trunk Herald; price three cents per 
copy." It was a great success. 

One day, while ex-per-i-ment-ing with a bottle of 
phos-phor-us, the bottle slipped from his hand and 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. iSj 

fell upon the floor of his lab-o-ra-to-ry. The car was 
set on fire, and se-rl-ous damage to the train was only 
pre-vent-ed by pitching all the poor boy's chem-ic-als 
out of the window. After that, his father's cellar 
was trans-form-ed into an-oth-er work-shop, where he 
still con-tin-u-ed his ex-per-i-ment-al studies. 

While on the road he had watched the clerks in 
the tel-e-graph office, who were ex-per-i-ment-ing with 
a track-rail, thinking they could use these rails to 
tel-e-graph from station to station. One day it oc- 
curred to Ed-i-son, that these same wires o-veV-head, 
used for te-leg-ra-phy and the ar-riv-al of trains, could 
be used to send the headings of the most im-port-ant 
news of his papers, to the stations in advance of the 
trains. As this was at the time of the War of the 
Re-bell-ion, ev-er-y-bod-y was anxious to hear about 
the battles that had been fought, or were soon to be. 
If the people could be told what was coming in the 
news-pa-pers on the ar-riv-al of the train, bus-i-ness 
would be live-li-er for the young man. A few head- 
lines were sent as an ex-per-i-ment, and posted up in 
the stations. The result was a large increase in the 
sale of his papers. 

This set him to thinking what could be done 
with the tel-e-graph. He bought books upon te-leg- 
ra-phy, and in a short time knew all about it. He 
in-ter-est-ed a gen-tle-man in his early ex-per-i-ments — 



i84 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

a Mr. James Ward, of Port Huron — who as-sist-ed 
him to put up a Hne between his house and Ed-i-son's 
father's. 

About this time, at the peril of his own Hfe, he 
saved the son of the station-master, at Mt. Clements, 
from drowning. This grateful man now gave a 
helping hand to the young genius. Ed-i-son now 
began to study with all his might, sometimes not 
sleeping an hour through the whole night. He 
learned ev-er-y-thing which could aid him in his 
chosen pro-fes-sion. Giving up the place of train- 
boy, at the age of sixteen, he was given the po-si-tion 
of op-er-a-tor in the tel-e-graph office at Port Huron. 
Here he worked night and day; but at the end of 
six months, re-sign-ed, because not paid for extra 
work. At this time he earned twenty-five dollars per 
month. Being of-fer-ed a po-si-tion for night duty, 
in at office at Stratford, Can-a-da, he ac-cept-ed the 
offer, but only for a short time. Dis-cov-er-ing some 
neglect in his duty, he became so alarmed, that with- 
out a word of farewell, he packed up his bundle and 
left for home. 

The truth was, he wanted to study. He was 
never at rest. The ereat ideas in his young head 
were trying to find some way out. His next po-si- 
tion was at A-dri-an, Mich-i-gan. In con-nec-tion 
with his tel-e-graph work, he hired a small, shop, 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 185 

sup-pli-ed himself with tools, and oc-cu-pi-ed his 
leisure hours in mending bat-ter-ies, and ex-per-i- 
ment-ing. Some trouble between himself and a 
su-pe-ri-or of-fi-cer brought about his discharge. 
From A-dri-an he en-ter-ed an office at Fort Wayne, 
and soon after was given a place of im-port-ance in 
In-di-an-ap-o-lis. It was here that he in-vent-ed his 
re-peat-er. This was an in-stru-ment to transfer a 
message from one line to an-oth-er without the aid of 
an-oth-er me-di-um. This was a great triumph for a 
boy not yet sev-en-teen years old. From In-di-an- 
ap-o-lis he went to Cin-cin-na-ti. When here three 
months, a strike oc-cur-red in the tel-e-graph office, 
and the op-er-a-tors all left. Ev-er-y-thingwas placed 
in the hands of this young man, and the duties of the 
po-si-tion were so well at-tend-ed to, that he was im- 
me-di-ate-ly given a high po-si-tion with an increase 
of sal-a-ry. To this time he had always been ad-vanc- 
ing. But when the Gov-ern-ment, at the close of the 
war, gave back the tel-e-graph line to the com-pa-ny, 
Ed-i-son, who had been em-ploy-ed at Memphis, was 
dis-charg-ed, and found himself so very poor he was 
o-bli-o:ed to walk almost the entire distance from 
Memphis to Lou-is-ville. 

Drifting about from place to place, but always 
intent upon making progress in his calling, he at last 
reached Boston, and there found a friend in Mr. 



i86 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Mel-i-ken, a thorough e-lec-tri-cian, who gave him 
in-struc-tion in the things he wished to know. Here 
Ed-i-son o-rig-i-na-ted the in-stru-ment for the use of 
private hnes, and his "Duplex System." 

Going to New York, and being out of em-ploy- 
ment, he one day saun-ter-ed into the office of the 
Gold In-di-ca-tor's Com-pa-ny — a line which tel-e- 
graph-ed the changes in the price of gold. Their in- 
stru-ment had been broken, and ev-er-y-thi-ng was in 
con-fu-sion. Ed-i-son of-fer-ed to mend it for them, 
and they were very quick in ac-cept-ing his ser-vi-ces. 
In a short time ev-er-y-thing was running smoothly 
again. This com-pa-ny, and the Western Union 
Tel-e-graph Com-pa-ny, en-ter-ed into an a-gree-ment 
some time after, to buy ev-er-y in-ven-tion, re-la-ting 
to te-leg-ra-phy, that Ed-i-son had to sell. 

In 1876, he e-rect-ed a lab-o-ra-to-ry at Menlo 
Park, New Jersey, fur-nish-ing it with ev-er-y-thing 
his in-vent-ive genius needed in his ex-per-i-ment-al 
labors. From that time he was known as the "young 
man who kept the grass from growing on the path to 
the U. S. Patent Office," at Wash-ing-ton. As early 
as 1882, he had taken out nearly three hundred pat- 
ents. To show you what some of them are, I will 
name some of the most im-port-ant: Thirty-five on 
au-to-mat-ic and chem-ic-al te-leg-ra-phy; eight on 
duplex and quad-ru-plex tel-e-graph-ing; thirty-eight 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 187 

on tel-e-graph printing; fourteen on "the Morse sys- 
tem ; the fire-alarm, district e-lec-tric signals, e-lec-tric 
pens and e-lec-tric lights, the last of which was in- 
vent-ed about 1879. I^ ^^is quad-ru-plex system, 
in-vent-ed by him, in which four mess-a-ges can be 
sent at the same time, on the same road, the saving 
to the Union Tel-e-graph Com-pa-ny is more than 
$500,000, an-nu-al-ly. But, when you learn that he 
has been growing deaf for some years, you will not 
wonder that he has turned his in-vent-ive genius to 
the con-struc-tion of such in-stru-ments as the pho-no- 
graph, aer-o-phone, carbon tel-e-phone and mi-cro- 
phone, which, when you are older, you can study and 
know all about. In order to know just what other 
sci-en-tif-ic men have done, and are doing, all over 
the world, Mr. Ed-i-son has learned to read French, 
German, I-tal-ian and Spanish books. 

Although the world owns Mr. Ed-i-son now, in 
Mich-i-gan his busy life was begun, and she will 
claim him as the most won-der-ful man this a^e has 
pro-duc-ed. The story of his life is a lesson for 
ev-er-y earnest boy in the land. Ed-i-son found the 
work he liked to do, and then set about doing it with 
all his soul and strength. He has lived a little more 
than forty years, and has done more in that time to 
change the con-di-tion of mankind, than any man now 
living in the whole world. 



i88 



HISIORY OF MICHIGAN. 



Upon MIch-i-gan's list of na-tion-al ce-leb-ri-ties 
may also be found the name of James M. Stanley, 
the painter. If I were to guess what the M. stood 
for in his name, I should say Mad-i-son, because 
many of the boys that were born about the time Mr. 

Stanley was — 1 8 1 4 — were 
named for James Mad-i- 
son, the second Pres-i-dent 
of our Re-pub-lic. In 1835 
Mr. Stanley began to paint 
portraits, in Detroit. 

After painting the por- 
traits of white men for a 
few years, the thought 
struck him to paint a life- 
size picture of one of the 
In-di-an chiefs living near 
Fort Snelling. 

From 1842, Mr. Stan- 
ley's art took a new di-rec-tion. His love for In-di-an 
scenes, legends and ad-ven-tures, was the future 
theme of his work. He painted the portrait of the 
most-known In-di-an war-ri-ors in Ar-kan-sas, Texas 
and New Mex-i-co. When Gen-er-al Karney crossed 
the Rockv Mountains with the famous guide. Kit 
Carson, Mr. Stanley was the draughtsman of the 
ex-pe-di-tion. The march took them three months, 




JAMES M. STANLEY, 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. i8g 

and though they were at-tack-ed by the In-di-ans, and 
Mr. Stanley lost his clothes, he saved his sketches, 
paints and brushes. These were the things he prized 
most. 

In the e-lev-en years which he spent among the 
In-di-ans, stud-y-ing their ways, painting the life-size 
portraits of such braves as *'Wild Cat," ''Big War- 
ri-or," *'Tiger" and "Al-e-ga-tor," and other pictures 
of frontier scenes, his col-lec-tion num-ber-ed fifty-two 
paintings. These he placed in the Smith-so-ni-an 
In-sti-tute, in Wash-ing-ton. In the fire which de- 
stroyed a part of the building in 1865, they were all 
burned. This was a great loss to Mr. Stanley, as 
well as to the young people who will read in future 
years the story of the "Red Men of A-mer-i-ca." 
He painted the Creek, Sioux and Blackfoot war-ri-or 
in his wild costume, or as he was before the Gov-ern- 
ment, at Wash-ing-ton, began to feed and clothe them, 
and the pi-o-neer settler to benumb his senses with . 
whisky. The ig-no-rant man must work for what he 
eats, or soon he will fall into bad ways, and lose his 
manly ap-pear-ance. One of Mr. Stanley's pictures, 
which has been much ad-mir-ed, and has been ex-hib- 
it-ed in Europe and this country, is "The Trial of 
Red Jacket." It is val-u-ed at $30,000. An-oth-er, 
"Cath-a-rine's Dis-clo-sureof Pon-ti-ac'sCon-spir-a-cy, 
to Major Gladwyn." This is owned by a gen-tle-man 



I go HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

in Detroit. Mr. Stanley died in 1872, leaving behind 
him a number of val-u-a-ble can-vass-es, de-pict-ing 
scenes in the early his-to-ry of Mich-i-gan. These 
now form a per-ma-nent gal-ler-y at Detroit. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ABOUT THE PRO-DUC-TIONS, MIN-ER-AL WEALTH, SCHOOLS, 

ETC., OF MICH-I-GAN. 

Few of my young readers, I venture to say, have 
any idea of the size of the State of Mich-i-gan, and 
will be sur-pris-ed when told it is almost as large as 
all of the New England States put to-geth-er; that 
it has fourteen hundred miles of nav-i-ga-ble waters, 
and is con-sid-er-ed the second State in the Union in 
com-mer-cial im-port-ance. 

Upon her soil ev-er-y-thing will grow a-bun-dant-ly 
that is grown in the same lat-i-tude in any other State. 
Apples, peaches, pears, grapes, cherries, plums, and 
ev-er-y kind of berry, is found there. From the hard 
woods of her forests is made much of the fur-ni-ture 
used in this country, and great quan-ti-ties are now 
shipped to Europe. In her fish-er-ies she is reck- 
on-ed the fourth State in the Union. The white-fish 
of her lakes, next to the shad, is con-sid-er-ed tbe most 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. igi 

pal-a-ta-ble of fish. When the bound-a-ry Hne was 
about to be fixed between Can-a-da and the U-ni-ted 
States, Ben-ja-mln Frankhn was one of the com-mis- 
sion-ers sent over to England to say where the 
A-mer-i-cans wanted it to run. He in-sist-ed that 
the hne ought to divide Lake Su-pe-ri-or through its 
center, and when this was agreed to, Frankhn said 
it was the greatest service he had ren-der-ed to his 
country, because it gave to the U-ni-ted States the 
great copper region of the Con-ti-nent. 

Besides copper, Mich-i-gan has iron ore, coal 
fields, hundreds of salt wells, and many gypsum 
(plaster) beds. Gold and silver has been found, but 
not in quan-ti-ties that would make the thrifty Mich-i- 
gan farmer leave his pro-lif-ic bearing peach trees, 
and wheat fields, to mine it. 

A fine qual-i-ty of marble is found in the Mar- 
quette iron region, also, stone of a beau-ti-ful pink 
' color, called "Su-pe-ri-or Sand-stone," which is much 
liked for buildings. They have a clay, also, which, 
when made into bricks, and burnt, has a soft cream 
color. These bricks are used for handsome private 
dwellings all over the northwest. To all of these 
sources of wealth, must be added billions of feet of 
pine lumber, cut ev-er-y year from her forests, and 
shipped to ev-er-y port in the U-ni-ted States. 

In view of these pro-duc-tions, my young reader 



ig2 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

will eas-i-ly see how nec-es-sa-ry to the strength of 
the Union Mich-i-gan is, and will wish her neigh- 
bors, the English, may never be for-tu-nate enough 
to take her from us again. 

To show you what an in-tel-li-gent and far-see-ing 
people the early settlers of Mich-i-gan were, I must 
tell you how they started out with their schools. 

When the ter-ri-to-ry was carved out of the 
North-west-ern Ter-ri-to-ry, in 1805, in ev-er-y town- 
ship a section of land was set apart for school pur- 
pos-es. If the land was sold, the money was in- 
vest-ed, and the in-ter-est could only be used for 
schools. In 1827, any township having fifty prop- 
er-ty owners, which had not hired a teacher to teach 
the children reading, writing and a-rith-me-tic, could 
be fined a hundred dollars for neglect of duty ; and 
any township having two hundred house-hold-ers 
must hire a teacher who could teach Latin and 
French in ad-di-tion to the English branches. In 
1833, Mich-i-gan had a Su-per-in-tend-ent of Public 
In-struc-tion ap-point-ed, the first of-fi-cer of the kind 
in the U-ni-ted States. 

Dr. E-ras-tus G. Haven has been called the father 
of the U-ni-ver-si-ty, though not one of its founders. 
He was born- in Boston in 1820. In those days 
ev-er-y young boy wanted to learn all he could, and 
although E-ras-tus Haven was poor, and o-blig-ed to 



HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 



193 



work very hard while ob-tain-ing an ed-u-ca-tion, he 
did not relax his ex-er-tions until he could read Latin 
and Greek, and had mas-ter-ed all the higher branches 
of a college ed-u-ca-tion. He began life as an in- 
struct-or in a New York 
a-cad-e-my, of which he 
soon became prin-ci-pal. 

In 1863, Dr. Haven 
was chosen Pres-i-dent of 
the U-ni-ver-si-ty, and 
from that time the school 
maybe said to have begun 
its onward course of pros- 
per-i-ty and use-ful-ness. 

And still, they were 
not sat-is-fi-ed. The 
State wishing to see their 
schools the best in the 
Union, now pro-pos-ed to give half the money re- 
ceiv-ed from the sale of its swamp lands, to the school 
fund. When this land is all sold, the fund will 
amount to not less than five billion dollars. 

Besides setting apart a section in each township, 
four whole townships were given for the founding of 
a " Sem-i-na-ry of Learning." This was the nest-egg 
from which has grown the Free U-ni-ver-si-ty of 
Mich-i-gan, lo-ca-ted at Ann Arbor. It was o-pen-ed 




E. O. HAVEN, D.D., LL.D. 



194 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

in 1842, and any young man in the State need not 
say '*if I had had the ad-van-ta-ges which weahh 
brings, I colild have had a good ed-u-ca-tion." Here 
he may have these ad-van-ta-ges by just ac-cept-ing 
and using them. 

Then, again, in 1862, the people thought the 
young men of Mich-i-gan ought to know more about 
farming; what crops would grow the best on their 
soil ; what must be done to fruit trees to keep them 
bearing, and all those things which the tiller of the 
soil ought to know, to make his work more ef-fect-ive 
with less of it. So they asked the Leg-is-la-ture to 
give them some land for an Ag-ri-cult-u-ral College. 
The land was given, for it seems, land was the thing 
they could give away for schools in Mich-i-gan, and 
no-bod-y would raise an ob-jec-tion. 

Four or five hundred acres were taken near 
Lansing, cleared of trees and stumps, buildings built, 
and the school o-pen-ecl. Here young men may 
study the same branches as in the U-ni-ver-si-ty, but 
they must work on the farm a portion of the day. 
This school is also free. 

So, in con-clu-sion, I think you will fully agree 
with me in the view, that Mich-i-gan is a very good 
State for a boy to be born and grow up in 



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